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2142 


A   SOUTH   AMERICAN   HOME 


BRITISH  EXPLOITS 
IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

A  History  of  British  Activities  in  Explo- 
ration, Military  Adventure,  Diplomacy, 
Science,  and  Trade,   in  Latin-America 


BY 

W.  H.  KOEBEL 

Author  of  "Argentina,  Past  and  Present,"  "Modern  Chile,"  "Romance 

of  the  River  Platte,"    "Uruguay,"    "The   South   Americans, 

from  the   Social  and   Industrial   Point  of  View," 

"Modern  Argentina,"  Editor-in-Chief  of  the 

"Encyclopedia  of  South  America." 


ILLUSTRATED  WITH 
PHOTOGRAPHS  AND  OLD  PRINTS 


NEW  YORK 
THE  CENTURY  CO. 

1917 


63912 


■^ 


PREFACE 

Among  such  merits  as  I  may  claim  for  this  work  is  a 
total  lack  of  haste  in  its  preparation.  Written  under  the 
stress  of  no  other  pre-occupation  save  that  caused  by  the 
deep  shadow  of  the  war,  there  has  been  no  question  here 
of  a  rapid  gathering  together  of  material;  but  rather 
that  of  a  lengthy  process  of  selection.  To  pick  out  the 
most  salient  features  from  the  vast  field  of  British  enter- 
prise in  South  America  is  not  an  easy  task. 

This  book  having  been  written  in  the  comparative  soli- 
tude of  the  country,  and  its  sources  of  information  largely 
derived  from  my  own  library,  I  have  taxed  the  good  na- 
ture of  a  smaller  number  than  usual  of  the  various  ex- 
perts. It  is,  nevertheless,  impossible  for  me  to  pass  by 
the  names  of  three  gentlemen  without  a  special  note  of 
thanks. 

The  first  of  these  is  his  Excellency  Senor  Don  Agustin 
Edwards,  that  most  notable  Chilean  Minister  Plenipoten- 
tiary in  London,  whose  kindness  in  obtaining  information 
concerning  the  early  British  in  Chile  must  be  gratefully 
acknowledged.  To  Mr.  Herbert  Gibson  I  am  deeply  in- 
debted for  similar  good  offices  in  regard  to  Argentina  and 
to  the  British  writers  on  that  country.  I  have,  more- 
over, to  express  my  obligation  to  Mr.  Francis  Edwards, 
who  has  not  only  placed  at  my  disposal  his  wide  knowl- 
edge of  South  American  bibliography  but  has  most  courte- 
ously taken  the  trouble  to  send  me  down  for  purposes  of 
reference  those  particular  books  which  I  lacked  for  this 
work. 

The  subjoined  letter,  which  I  found  myself  under  the 
necessity  of  sending  to  the  editor  of  a  minor  London  pub- 


▼iii  PREFACE 

lication,  will  explain  itself.  It  is  true  that  it  was  written 
in  the  heat  of  an  indignation  which  appeared  justifiable  to 
me;  but,  on  mature  consideration,  the  special  nature  of 
this  present  book,  written  at  this  period,  seems  to  de- 
mand its  inclusion,  sincerely  reluctant  though  I  am  to 
introduce  any  personal  matter  of  the  kind.  I  include  it 
in  full,  moreover,  although  some  lines  have  no  bearing 
on  the  subject.  But  this  is  preferable  to  the  employ- 
ment of  the  asterisk — than  which  there  is  surely  no  instru- 
ment of  the  pen  which  lends  itself  more  readily  to  the  un- 
fair practices  of  a  juggling  mind. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  give  the  name  of  the  publication  to 
which  the  following  was  directed : 

Sir: — In  this  secluded  spot  most  things,  including  periodicals, 
are  belated.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  I  have  only  now  been 
enabled  to  read  your  review,  published  on  the  thirtieth  of  Novem- 
ber, of  my  book,  The  South  Americans.  I  have,  up  to  now,  man- 
aged to  deliver  myself  of  eighteen  books  without  sparring  with  a 
reviewer — possibly  because  there  has  seemed  no  reason!  But 
there  are  two  points  in  this  review  of  yours  that  cannot  be  passed 
over  in  silence. 

The  first  is  a  personal  one.  According  to  your  reviewer: 
"The  name  of  our  author  leads  one  to  suppose  that  he  knows  a 
good  deal  more  than  he  tells  of  the  unceasing  efforts  of  Germany 
for  supremacy — not  commercial  supremacy  alone — in  some  of 
the  states,  especially  in  parts  of  Brazil;  as  a  matter  of  fact  he 
dismisses  this  subject  airily  in  twenty  lines." 

Now  this,  leaping  from  the  flat  body  of  a  review,  is  startling, 
and  imbues  one  with  the  sensations  of  a  sitter  on  a  needle-point 
concealed  in  a  cushion !  If  the  words  have  any  meaning  at  all, 
sir,  they  surely  convey  the  gravest  slur  on  the  loyalty  of  one 
who  has  never  willingly  missed  an  opportunity  of  pointing  out 
the  German  peril,  not  only  in  South  America,  but  elsewhere. 
Those  who  are  familiar  with  my  work — and  I  am  fortunate  in 
that,  though  clearly  lacking  your  reviewer,  their  number  is  not 
small — know  that  I  have  laboured  this  very  point  with  persistence 
for  the  last  ten  years.  They,  I  am  sure,  will  not  need  from  me 
any  comment  on  this  imputation.  The  others  (I  suppose,  sir, 
that  it  would  savour  too  much  of  egotism  to  class  them  as  the 
"remainder"?)  will,  I  hope,  accept  my  unqualified  denial  that 


PREFACE  ix 

there  is  the  faintest  ground  for  this  queer  insinuation  concern- 
ing some  dark  and  mysterious  knowledge  which  I  am  jealously 
guarding  from  the  British  public. 

As  regards  the  precise  degree  of  taste  in  interpolating  such 
matter,  on  such  evidence,  in  a  review — well,  I  do  not  think  that 
I  have  any  peculiar  reason  to  be  sensitive  on  this  point.  As  one 
whose  father  held  a  commission  from  Queen  Victoria,  and  as 
one  who  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war  alone  out  of  five  brothers 
— the  number  is  no  longer  intact — did  not  hold  a  commission  in 
the  regular  forces,  I  cannot  produce  a  blush  of  shame  even  to 
gratify  your  reviewer!  IMoreover,  that  I  am  still  a  civilian  is 
the  fault,  not  of  four  years  on  the  shady  side  of  the  slacker's 
haven  (forty)  but  of  a  slightly  sprung  heart.  So  much  for  a 
personal   outpouring  rendered   unavoidable  by   our  critic. 

The  second  point  I  can  turn  to  with  some  relief,  since  it  is 
not  of  an  intimate  nature,  and  since  it  seems  to  me  to  come  within 
the  reviewer's  legitimate  province.  In  any  case  it  strengthens 
my  theory  that  I  have  the  misfortune  not  to  count  your  reviewer 
among  my  readers.  According  to  him,  again:  "Mr.  Koebel 
'  cannot  know  much  of  Pernambuco  or  its  surroundings,  or  he 
could  not  have  failed  to  observe  the  copious  and  interesting 
Dutch  remains  still  to  be  seen  in  that  part  of  the  continent. ' ' 

I  freely  admit  that  an  ambiguous  sentence  which  the  reviewer 
has  picked  out  might  produce  this  supposition — in  the  mind  of 
one  who  has  not  read  on  and  arrived  at  the  description  of  these 
very  Dutch  remains  at  Pernambuco  (p.  265). 

Accept  my  apologies  for  the  length  of  this  letter,  which  is 
primarily  due  to  the  fact  that  it  is  not  only  men  having  the 
advantage  of  homely  names  who  pride  themselves  on  being  Eng- 
lish.    There  are  others,  such  as, 

Yours  very  truly, 

W.  H.  Koebel. 
Castle  Combe, 
Combe  Martin, 
N.  Devon. 

These  latter  apologies  must  be  repeated  here  to  the 
present  reader.  May  his  breast  be  free  from  that  justi- 
fied resentment  which  one  who  has  paid  to  enter  a  place 
of  public  entertainment  must  experience  when  he  finds 
himself  buttonholed  and  drawn  into  a  corner  for  an  in- 
timate and  heart-to-heart  talk  with  a  performer  whose 


X  PREFACE 

rightful  place  is  on  the  stage,  and  whose  private  affairs 
are  a  mere  matter  of  boredom  to  others !  Nevertheless, 
it  is  preferable  to  run  this  risk  than  to  permit  the  re- 
motest doubt  of  the  loyalty  with  which  the  affairs  of  the 
British  in  South  America  are  regarded  in  these  pages. 


CONTENTS 
PART  I 

THE  NAVIGATORS 
OHAPTEB  PAGE 

I    The  Romantic  Period  in  South  America  ...       3 
II    The  First  English  Mariners  to  Sail  the  Spanish 

Main 15 

III  The  Beginnings  of  British  Trade  with  South 

America 46 

IV  The  Buccaneers 80 

PART  II 

the  BRITISH   IN   COLONIAL  SOUTH   AMERICA 

V    Early  British  Adventures  in  Spanish  America  .  101 
VI    Some  Eighteenth-Century  British  Voyages  to 

South  America 116 

VII    The  British  Expedition  to  the  River  Plate  ,      .  141 
VIII    British  Guiana  and  the  Falkland  Islands   .     .   156 
IX    British  Fighters  in  the  Cause  of  South  Ameri- 
can Independence  (I) 163 

X    British  Fighters  in  the  Cause  of  South  Ameri- 
can Independence  (II) 188 

XI    British  Fighters  in  the  Cause  of  South  Ameri- 
can Independence  (III) 214 

PART  III 

south   AMERICA  IN   THE  EARLY  PART  OF  THE 
NINETEENTH    CENTURY 

XII    The  First   British   Relations   with   the  New 

Republics 235 

XIII  Early  Travelers  and  Traders  in  the  Republics  .  255 

XIV  The  British  in  Brazil  (I) 281 

XV    The  British  in  Brazil  (II) 295 

XVI    The  British  in  Brazil  (III) 311 

XVII    The  British  in  Brazil  (IV) 327 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XVIII    The  British  in  Brazil  (V) 340 

XIX     The  British  in  Brazil  (VI) 364 

XX    The  British  in  the  South  American  Internal 

Wars 374 

PART  IV 

scientific  and  literary  observers 

XXI     Some  British  Naturalists  in  South  America      .  395 
XXII     South  America  in  English  Print 420 

XXIII  Achievements  of  the  British  in  the  Nineteenth 

Century  (I) 481 

XXIV  Achievements  of  the  British  in  the  Nineteenth 

Century  (II) 494 

XXV    Achievements  of  the  British  in  the  Nineteenth 

Century  (III) 512 

XXVI    To-day  and  To-morrow  in  South  America     .      .  525 

Appendix 553 

Bibliography  of  Modern  Works 555 

British  Arrivals  in  the  River  Plate  at  the  Be- 
ginning of  the  XIXth  Century     ....  570 
Index 573 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

A  South  American  Home Frontispiece 

TACING     PAGE 

Sir  John  Hawkins 20 

Sir  Francis  Drake 20 

The  Santos  River  in  Brazil 48 

Old  Fort  at  Mouth  of  Santos  River,  Brazil 48 

Island  of  Juan  Fernandez 88 

Valdivia,  Chile  (1836) 102 

Conference  of  President  0  'Higgins  with  the  Indians      .      .   112 

Ambrose  O'Higgins 124 

Sir  Home  Riggs  Popham 144 

Lieutenant-General  Whitelocke 144 

General  San  Martin 168 

General  Bolivar 184 

An  Early  View  of  Valparaiso,  Chile 190 

Plaza  de  la  Independencia,  Santiago,  Chile  (early  XlXth 

century) 206 

Araucanian  "Witch  Doctors  at  Work 218 

An  Early  Raid  by  Araucanian  Indians,  Chile 228 

A  British  South  American  on  His  Rancho 244 

British  South  Americans 244 

Crossing  the  Andes 262 

South  American  Indian  Encampment 276 

Rio  de  Janeiro  (1809) 300 

Landing  Stage,  Rio  de  Janeiro  (early  XlXth  century)  .      .  332 

Public  Gardens  (1835) 332 

Sugar  Loaf  Mountain,  Rio  de  Janeiro 372 

Garibaldi 380 

General  Rosas 380 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

JACINQ 

PAGE 

South  American  Indians 412 

South  American  Cattle 432 

South  American  Oxen 432 

Early  View  of  Valparaiso,  Chile 456 

Plaza  San  Martin,  Mendoza,  Argentina 472 

Cattle  Market  at  j\Iontevideo 488 

Plaza  Constitucion  Station,  Buenos  Aires 496 

Avenue  de  Mayo,  Buenos  Aires 496 

South  American  Indians 508 

Old  Print  of  the  Llama  and  Indians 508 

A  Modern  British  South  American  Ship 516 

Early  Type  of  Royal  Mail  Steam  Packet  Company  Ship  .      .  516 

Railroad  Construction  in  South  America 520 

Forest  Clearing  in  South  America 520 

Viaduct  Construction  in  South  America 532 

Bridge  Construction  in  South  America 532 

Avenue  Rio  Branco,  Rio  de  Janeiro 548 

Street  Scene  in  Rio  de  Janeiro 548 

The   publishers   acknowledge   with  thanks   the   courtesy   of   The    Royal   Mail   Steam 
Packet  Company  in  supplying  several  of  the  above  illustrations. 


PAET  I 
THE  NAVIGATORS 


BRITISH   EXPLOITS   IN 
SOUTH   AMERICA 

CHAPTER  I 

THE   KOMANTIC    PEEIOD   IN    SOUTH   AMEKICA 

The  charm  of  the  Americas — Iberian  navigators — Prince  Henry  of  Portu- 
gal and  his  seamen — Some  famous  captains — Columbus — ^Manner  in 
which  the  English  were  attracted  to  the  new  lands — The  English 
crusaders  as  comrades  of  the  Portuguese — Ramifications  of  friend- 
ship which  succeeded  the  first  alliance — The  interchange  of  Portuguese 
wines  and  English  cloth — The  alliance  consolidated  in  battle  against 
the  Spaniards — The  treaty  of  Windsor — The  marriage  of  John  of 
Portugal  to  Philippa  of  England — Prince  Henry,  the  navigator  of 
English  blood  on  his  mother's  side — Some  ethics  of  the  slave  trade — 
Effect  of  the  discoveries  of  the  new  lands  upon  the  English  in  Portu- 
gal— The  return  of  the  galleons — Awakening  of  the  navigating  spirit 
in  the  West  of  England — The  story  of  Robert  Machin — Romance  which 
is  alleged  to  have  led  to  the  discovery  of  Madeira  by  the  English — 
Death  of  Machin  and  Anna  d'Arset — Links  connecting  the  tale  with 
the  accepted  discovery  of  the  island  by  Joao  Goncalves  Zarco— Se- 
bastian Cabot — His  South  American  discoveries  made  in  the  Spanish 
service — Condition  of  South  America  when  William  Hawkins,  father 
of  Sir  John,  set  sail  for  that  continent  in  1530 — Achievements  already 
effected  by  the  navigators  and  conquistadores — Iberian  colonization — 
Extent  of  the  continent  occupied — Questions  of  Indian  and  Negro 
labor — Doctrine  of  Las  Casas — The  early  English  navigators  unwit- 
tingly act  as  the  avenging  spirits  of  the  slaughtered  Indians — Mis- 
taken policy  of  the  Spanish  Empire. 

THE  rich  flavor  of  such  names  as  the  Spanish  Main 
and  the  South  Seas  has  retained  its  charm  almost 
unimpaired  from  the  dawn  of  the  New  World  to 
the  present  day.  For  four  centuries  the  promise  of  the 
new  and  rich  lands  has  drawn  adventurers  from  the 
North  to  compete  with  each  other  and  with  the  descend- 

3 


4         BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

ants  of  those  Iberian  conquistador es  who  first  set  foot  on 
the  neck  of  a  wondering  continent. 

The  tale  of  the  early  Iberian  navigators  is  clear  enough, 
from  the  brave  band  of  Portuguese  voyagers,  fathered 
by  Prince  Henry  the  Navigator  of  Portugal,  to  Columbus 
and  his  comrades.  It  was  the  Portuguese  who  first  drove 
boldly  into  the  Western  Ocean.  Their  seniority  as  dis- 
coverers is  not  to  be  questioned.  It  was  some  three 
quarters  of  a  century  before  Columbus  set  sail  for  the 
West  when  their  two  seamen,  Bartholomeu  Perestrello 
and  Joan  Gongalves  Zarco,  discovered  the  islands  of 
Porto  Santo  and  Madeira  respectively  in  1419  and  1420: 
But  after  this  the  more  famous  of  the  Portuguese  navi- 
gators, such  as  Nuno  Tristao,  Vasco  da  Gama,  and  Pedro 
Alvarez  Cabral  (although  this  last  was  at  a  later  period 
responsible  for  the  discovery  of  Brazil),  forsook  the  west- 
em  course  for  the  southern,  and,  fringing  the  African 
coast,  turned  to  the  east,  and  sought  India  and  China  by 
way  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope. 

The  significance  of  the  voyages  of  Columbus  and  of  the 
other  navigators  in  the  service  of  the  neighboring  king- 
dom of  Spain  is  perhaps  even  more  generally  understood. 
The  manner  in  which  one  of  these  great  events  followed 
on  the  heels  of  another  has  been  made  abundantly  clear. 
But  what  of  the  English?  How  did  these  Northern 
islanders  come  to  put  their  spoke  into  these  new  wheels 
of  land  and  water  from  which  their  home  was  so  remotely 
situated?  What  was  it  that  first  set  on  the  track  of  the 
tropical  seas  the  bearers  of  such  charmed  names  as  Haw- 
kins, Drake,  Raleigh,  Cavendish,  and  Dampier?  For  a 
sufiiciently  comprehensive  answer  to  all  this  it  is  neces- 
sary to  hark  back  to  a  precolonial  age,  almost  three  cen- 
turies before  the  discovery  of  Madeira. 

It  was  as  early  as  1147  that  a  number  of  English  cru- 
saders, on  their  way  to  the  Holy  Land,  halted  on  the 
banks  of  the  Tagus,  and  assisted  the  Portuguese  to  cap- 
ture the  city  of  Lisbon  from  the  Moors.     The  men  of  the 


ROMANTIC  PERIOD  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA         5 

oak  and  the  men  of  the  olive  found  that,  however  much 
they  might  differ  in  complexion,  they  had  at  least  much 
sympathy  in  common.  Thus  was  begun  the  alliance  be- 
tween England  and  Portugal. 

The  relations  between  the  two  countries  rapidly  be- 
came consolidated.  The  following  year,  1148,  we  find  an 
Englishman,  Gilbert  of  Hastings,  as  Bishop  of  Lisbon. 
In  1217  another  fillip  was  given  to  this  international 
friendship  by  the  arrival  of  a  second,  and  more  formid- 
able, army  of  English  crusaders,  by  whose  assistance  a 
Moorish  army  of  fifty-five  thousand  men  was  completely 
defeated. 

Nearly  twenty  years  after  the  falling  through  of  a 
proposed  matrimonial  alliance  between  the  English  and 
Portuguese  royal  houses,  the  earls  of  Lancaster  and 
Arundel  arrived  in  Portugal  in  1344,  charged  with  an 
important  mission  of  friendship,  and  three  years  after 
this  some  further  matrimonial  schemes  were  drawn  up, 
but  these,  too,  proved  abortive.  These  delicate  failures 
seemed  to  have  no  ill  effect  on  the  relations  between  the 
two  countries.  Commercial  bonds  had  now  entered  into 
the  field  to  strengthen  the  military  friendship.  Through 
the  instrumentality  of  a  young  Portuguese  wine  mer- 
chant, sent  on  a  mission  to  London,  many  special  agree- 
ments and  clauses  were  arrived  at  between  the  English 
and  Portuguese  merchants.  As  a  result,  the  red  wines 
of  the  Douro  Mountains  and  the  Collares  and  Algarve 
slopes  began  a  northward  journey  in  ships,  which  they 
have  continued  practically  without  intermission  from 
that  day  to  this,  while  the  first  consignments  of  an 
equally  lengthy  and  unbroken  procession  of  English 
clothes  began  to  come  rolling  southwards  across  the  Bay 
of  Biscay. 

It  is  certainly  curious  that  in  those  days  of  small  and 
cranky  ships  we  should  have  established  our  most  inti- 
mate relations  with  a  people  dwelling  just  the  wrong  side 
of  the  dreaded  Bay  of  Biscay !     The  bay  whose  entrance 


6         BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

is  guarded  by  the  jagged  and  equally  menacing  rocks  of 
Ushant!  But  so  it  was.  At  the  beginning  of  the  four- 
teenth century  English  merchants  were  already  familiar 
with  Portuguese  soil,  while  in  1381  two  thousand  fresh 
English  men-at-arms  set  sail  for  the  Tagus.  Four  years 
later  these  were  'followed  by  five  hundred  English  arch- 
ers, who  fought  side  by  side  with  the  Portuguese  among 
the  vines  and  olives,  and  whose  long-bows  twanged  to 
some  purpose  on  the  field  of  Aljubarrota,  where  the  Cas- 
tilian  knights  went  down  before  them. 

In  1386,  the  following  year,  the  treaty  of  Windsor  con- 
firmed the  Anglo-Portuguese  alliance,  and  this  friend- 
ship— no  new  thing  even  at  the  time  of  the  compact — has 
lasted,  practically  unbroken,  from  that  day  to  this. 
Surely  this  must  constitute  the  oldest-standing  known 
treaty  in  the  history  of  the  world ! 

The  following  year  John  of  Gaunt  triumphantly  en- 
tered Portugal  at  the  head  of  an  English  army  of  two 
thousand  lances  and  three  thousand  archers,  and  on  the 
second  of  February,  1387,  his  daughter  Philippa,  by  his 
first  wife,  Blanche  of  Lancaster,  was  married  to  King 
John  of  the  then  solid  realm  of  Portugal. 

Those  who  have  taken  the  trouble  to  wonder  what 
these  affairs  of  crusaders,  cloth,  and  port  wine  have  to 
do  with  the  English  in  South  America  will  now  begin  to 
obtain  some  inkling.  For  one  of  the  issue  of  this  mar- 
riage was  Prince  Henry  the  Navigator,  the  first  and 
greatest  patron  of  deep-sea  voyagers,  who  devoted  him- 
self heart  and  soul  to  the  science  of  discovery.  It  was 
he  who  called  astronomers  and  mathematicians  to  his 
aid,  and  who,  zealously  studying  the  problems  of  the 
ocean  in  his  austere  Sagre  Castle  on  the  southern  Portu- 
guese coast  by  Cape  St.  Vincent — the  nearest  point 
in  all  Europe  to  tropical  America! — directed  the  voy- 
ages of  those  famous  mariners  who  sailed  into  the  un- 
known. 

Thus  the  friend  and  patron  of  the  Portuguese  sea  cap- 


ROMANTIC  PERIOD  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA  7 

tains — the  leading  navigators  of  their  day — was  of  Eng- 
lish blood  on  his  mother's  side.  It  was  under  his  au- 
spices that  central  and  southern  Africa,  India,  and  Brazil 
were  discovered,  and  that  Lisbon  became  the  western 
gate  of  Europe,  while  decaying  Venice  bewailed  the  loss 
of  her  monopoly  of  the  overland  trade  route  to  In- 
dia. 

From  the  modern  point  of  view  it  can  scarcely  fail  to 
militate  against  Prince  Henry's  repute  that  he  should 
have  been  the  founder  of  the  Negro  slave-trade.  But, 
according  to  the  morality  of  the  fifteenth  century,  the 
procedure  was  not  only  excusable;  it  was  sound  policy. 
For  centuries  the  Portuguese  had  become  accustomed  to 
the  enslaving  of  prisoners  in  the  hands  of  the  Moors,  and 
they  themselves — in  common  with  all  the  European  na- 
tions of  the  Mediterranean  coast  line — ^had  retaliated  in 
similar  fashion,  until  that  degraded  condition  had  grown 
to  be  regarded  as  a  part  of  ordinary  life.  The  war-worn 
and  depopulated  lands  of  Southern  Portugal  were  sorely 
in  need  of  tillers.  It  must  be  the  business  of  his  captains, 
the  Navigator  decided,  to  supply  this  need.  A  point  of 
interest  in  connection  with  this  is  that  it  was  owing  to 
their  intimate  association  with  the  Portuguese,  whose  ex- 
ample they  copied,  that  the  English  first  approached  the 
coasts  of  Spanish  America  as  carriers  of  those  slaves  who 
were  destined  to  labor  in  the  mines  and  plantations  of  the 
conquistador  es. 

The  noises  of  these  great  discoveries  sounded  but  dully 
in  the  ears  of  most  of  the  Northern  Europeans,  who  had 
small  means  of  grasping  fully  what  was  afoot.  But  the 
case  was  very  different  with  those  English  who,  encour- 
aged by  the  crown  and  welcomed  by  the  inhabitants, 
found  themselves  in  Portugal  at  that  period.  These  saw 
with  their  own  eyes  the  return  of  the  deeply  laden  gal- 
leons, as  their  painted  bows  breasted  the  rapid  tide  of 
the  broad  Tagus.  They  watched  the  processions  bear- 
ing treasure,  spices,  strange  woods,  and  stranger  aborig- 


8         BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

inal  Imman  beings  from  the  landing  place  at  Belem  to 
the  center  of  Lisbon. 

They  heard,  moreover,  with  their  own  ears  the  barking 
of  the  cannon  and  the  booming  of  the  church  bells  that 
saluted  the  return  of  a  rich  armada  from  the  Indies  or 
Brazil.  Many  of  them  made  overtures  to  the  returned 
mariners,  and,  over  deep  cups  of  Lisbon  wine,  listened 
eagerly  to  the  tales  of  the  glittering  South — tales  of  what 
the  sailors  had  actually  seen,  as  well  as  those  vaporings 
of  their  vivid  imaginings  concerning  what  lay  behind  the 
mere  fringe  of  the  New  World  that  they  had  so  far  ex- 
plored. 

When  these  tales  floated  northwards  from  the  blue 
skies  to  the  gray,  they  were  answered  by  a  stir  in  the 
blood  of  the  Englishmen,  more  especially  in  the  West, 
the  center  of  the  chief  intercourse  with  Portugal,  where 
the  bales  of  cloth  slid  down  into  the  holds  and  the  barrels 
of  wine  rumbled  out  on  to  the  quays.  We  thus  at  length 
arrive  in  England,  together  with  these  amazing  reports 
and  rumors !  Very  soon  the  echoes  of  these  began  to  be 
heard  in  Plymouth,  where  William  Hawkins,  a  fine  old 
sailor  of  King  Henry  the  Eighth's,  was  preparing  to 
unfurl  his  sails  for  the  first  equatorial  voyage  ever  made 
by  an  Englishman  with  an  English  crew. 

But  before  we  get  into  the  stride  of  this — or  into  the 
wash  of  Hawkins'  wake,  whichever  you  prefer — let  us 
dispose  of  three  remaining  preliminary  matters  and  thus 
clear  the  decks  for  consecutive  action. 

The  first  of  these  concerns  the  story  of  Eobert  Machin, 
almost  certainly  the  first  Englishman,  mythical  or  phys- 
ical, to  sail  the  Western  Ocean.  The  legend  runs  that  in 
the  first  half  of  the  fourteenth  century  there  lived  in  the 
southwest  of  England  a  man,  Robert  Machin,  of  a  gentle 
but  impoverished  family.  In  an  ill-starred  moment  he 
became  enamored  of  a  lady,  Anna  d'Arset,  of  a  rank 
superior  to  his  own.  In  addition  to  her  noble  birth,  Anna 
d'Arset  possessed  rare  beauty,  large  fortune,  and  stern 


ROMANTIC  PERIOD  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA         9 

relatives.  These  last,  observing  with  sordid  anger  that 
the  Lady  Anna  regarded  Machin  with  favor,  caused  him 
to  be  fiung  into  prison,  and  presently  forced  Anna  d'Ar- 
set  into  a  marriage  with  an  abhorred  but  wealthy  noble- 
man. 

The  marriage  once  celebrated,  all  futile  romance  was 
considered  at  an  end.  The  detested  husband  bore  his 
bride  away  to  his  castle  near  Bristol,  and  Machin,  now 
considered  a  negligible  factor,  was  released  from  his  cell. 
But  his  persecutors  had  failed  to  reckon  with  the  real 
ardor  of  the  foiled  lover.  Machin,  collecting  a  small  band 
of  tried  friends,  proceeded  to  Bristol,  and  opened  his 
plan  of  campaign.  He  succeeded  in  communicating  with 
the  Lady  Anna,  whose  conjugal  ideas  appear  to  have  been 
in  advance  of  her  times,  and  eventually  procured  her  es- 
cape from  the  castle.  This  once  effected,  the  entire 
party  fled  from  Bristol  in  a  small  vessel,  hoping  to  reach 
France.  But  the  elements  showed  no  greater  pity  upon 
the  lovers  than  had  Anna  d'Arset's  family.  Assailed  by 
tempestuous  weather,  the  amateur  sailors  missed  their 
desired  port,  and  in  great  tribulation  were  tossed  about 
for  days  on  the  broad,  roaring  ocean. 

On  the  dawn  of  the  fourteenth  morning,  the  hapless 
wanderers  discerned  the  loom  of  a  dark  mass  across  the 
waters.  Full  daylight  revealed  an  island.  They  had  ar- 
rived at  a  fair  spot,  Madeira.  The  storm  had  died  away ; 
all  was  peace  and  sunshine  now.  White  and  yellow  birds 
flitted  about  the  vessel,  while  for  a  background  stood  the 
fairylike  island. 

Here  Machin  landed,  accompanied  by  his  ladylove  and 
some  others  of  the  party.  But  misfortune  still  dogged 
the  pair.  Lost  in  the  rapture  evoked  by  their  surround- 
ings, the  small  company  delayed  the  landing  of  such  few 
necessary  articles  as  they  had  brought  with  them.  A 
sudden  tempest  arose  and  blew  the  vessel  from  its  an- 
chorage out  to  sea.  The  next  morning  there  was  no  trace 
of  it,  nor  of  the  party  that  had  remained  on  board.     This 


10       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

final  catastrophe  marked  the  end  of  the  beautiful  Anna 
d'Arset,  doubtless  much  weakened  by  her  sufferings  at 
sea.  Neither  the  beauty  of  the  spot  nor  the  presence  of 
Machin  sufficed  to  counteract  the  shock.  She  expired  in 
the  arms  of  her  agonized  lover,  and  he,  for  his  part,  sur- 
vived her  but  a  few  days. 

Machin 's  last  request  to  his  friends  was  that  his  re- 
mains should  be  placed  in  the  same  grave  with  those  of 
his  beloved.  His  wish  was  faithfully  executed.  Above 
the  bodies  of  the  ill-fated  couple  was  erected  an  altar 
shaded  by  the  branches  of  a  stately  tree.  Upon  the  altar 
was  inscribed  the  tragic  history  of  Machin  and  Anna 
d'Arset,  and  a  pious  request  that  if  Christians  should 
ever  come  to  settle  in  the  island  they  should  erect  a 
church  upon  the  spot. 

A  number  of  the  earlier  historians  seem  inclined  to 
give  full  credence  to  this  story.  Gaspar  Fructuoso,  the 
sixteenth-century  Portuguese  chronicler,  for  one,  en- 
deavors with  some  seeming  success  to  pick  up  links  con- 
necting the  tales  told  by  the  survivors  of  Machin 's  voy- 
age with  the  accepted  discovery  of  the  island  by  the 
one-eyed  explorer,  Joao  Gon§alves  Zarco,  in  1420. 

Even  at  the  present  day  the  very  rare  visitors  to  the  lit- 
tle Madeirense  town  of  Machico — the  nomenclature  is  sig- 
nificant^— are  shown  a  very  small  and  ancient  chapel, 
which  is  said  to  be  in  part  the  original  building  which 
Zarco  piously  constructed  over  the  bodies  of  the  dead 
lovers. 

But  the  features  of  the  tale,  if  they  ever  existed  in 
material  life,  are  much  obscured  by  the  mist  of  ages. 
Perhaps  at  this  stage  of  the  book  it  may  seem  that  I  have 
dragged  in  Machin  and  the  Lady  Anna  rather  superflu- 
ously by  their  dead  or  mythical  heels.  I  have  merely  in- 
troduced them  to  show  the  possibility  that  an  Englishman 
made  an  excursion  into  the  Western  Ocean  before  any 
other  European  plowed  it  with  his  keel  on  his  way  to  the 
Americas  in  search  of  the  road  to  India. 


ROMANTIC  PERIOD  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA       11 

The  second  matter  may  be  tackled  with  considerably 
more  assurance,  since,  concerning  Sebastian  Cabot,  it 
rests  at  least  on  a  secure  historical  basis.  The  memory 
of  Cabot,  great  navigator  and  explorer  though  he  was, 
suffers  just  a  little  from  the  variety  of  his  interests,  when 
living.  The  name  of  Columbus,  though  himself  an  Ital- 
ian, is  an  indissoluble  part  of  the  birthright  of  every 
Spaniard.  There  are  other  explorers,  too,  whose  feats 
have  made  them  part  and  parcel  of  a  land  which  could 
not  claim  them  by  birth  or  descent. 

But  the  case  of  Cabot  is  not  on  all  fours  with  any  of 
these.  A  Venetian  by  birth  and  an  Englishman  by 
choice,  he  served  the  Spanish  Empire  as  well  as  the  land 
of  his  adoption.  On  this  account  it  is  a  little  difficult  to 
determine  the  neighborhood  of  his  correct  niche  in  his- 
tory. It  is  doubtless  owing  to  this  that  some  inevitable 
neglect  has  supervened,  and  that  many  of  the  more  inti- 
mate details  of  his  career  are  unknown.  * '  He  gave  Eng- 
land a  continent,"  says  an  American  author,  *'and  no 
one  knows  his  burial-place." 

Some  side  issues  of  the  evil  fate  which  has  dogged  this 
great  man's  memory  enter  even  into  these  pages,  for, 
although  Cabot,  having  two  Englishmen  in  his  company, 
sailed  southwards  to  investigate  Brazil  and  the  river 
Plate  in  1527,  and  thus  formed  one  of  the  first  flight  of 
the  explorers  of  the  South  American  mainland,  he 
achieved  this  not  in  the  English  service  but  as  a  high 
official  of  the  Spanish  marine.  So,  for  the  particular 
purposes  of  this  book  Cabot  must  remain  unclaimed,  and 
the  first  of  the  English  keels  to  enter  the  Southern  Ocean 
and  our  picture  must  be  that  of  the  first  of  the  three  most 
notable  generations  of  navigating  Hawkins'. 

Before  setting  sail  with  him  we  must  take  a  rapid  sur- 
vey of  South  America  as  it  was  when  the  first  flight  of 
seamen  from  the  North  were  preparing  to  invade  its  pri- 
vacy. 

When  William  Hawkins   set  sail  from  Plymouth  in 


12       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

1530,  the  tide  of  Iberian  colonization  had  not  yet  swollen 
to  its  full  flood.  Spain  had  succeeded  in  planting  her 
foot  firmly  on  the  coast  of  what  is  now  Venezuela  and  on 
the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  whence  she  was  preparing  to 
send  her  forces  southwards  to  conquer  the  Pacific  slope. 
But  the  great  Empire  of  the  Incas  still  lay  intact  among 
its  gigantic  mountain  ranges,  and  Pizarro  had  not  yet 
destroyed  the  Inca  rule,  nor  slain  the  Emperor  Atahu- 
alpa,  nor  plundered  the  heavy  gold  of  the  sacred  cities 
near  Lake  Titicaca. 

It  was  only  on  the  eve  of  such  mighty  occurrences  as 
these  that  William  Hawkins  sailed  his  ship  out  of  Plym- 
outh. At  that  period,  too,  was  still  lacking  the  Span- 
ish colonizing  stream  which,  headed  by  Pedro  de  Men- 
doza,  was  to  set  in  from  the  southeast  and  embrace  the 
countries  of  the  river  Plate  and  Paraguay. 

The  coast  of  Brazil  had  been  explored  by  Cabral,  Pin- 
zon,  and  others,  and  the  wonted  stone  pillars  engraved 
with  the  arms  of  Portugal  had  been  left  at  various  points 
on  the  shore.  Moreover,  the  Portuguese,  following  an- 
other custom  of  theirs,  had  marooned  a  few  of  their 
condemned  criminals  among  various  tribes  of  the  coastal 
Indians — a  procedure  which  had  a  double  advantage  in 
that  it  served  to  test  the  real  sentiments  of  the  Indians 
(for  if  the  Portuguese  were  found  alive  in  their  midst 
by  any  subsequent  expedition  it  might  be  taken  for 
granted  that  the  natives  were  friendly!),  and  to  prepare, 
by  this  humble  and  somewhat  maculate  instrumentality, 
the  mind  of  the  aboriginal  for  the  advent  of  the  white 
man. 

But  the  actual  settlements  of  the  Portuguese  on  the 
Brazilian  coast  had  as  yet  scarcely  come  into  being. 
Bahia,  the  first  real  center  of  Portuguese  colonization, 
was  still  the  haunt  of  Indians,  and  Kio  de  Janeiro  itself 
had  not  yet  even  been  discovered. 

It  was  only  on  a  narrow  strip  of  the  right  shoulder  of 
the  continent,  therefore,  that  active  colonizing  was  pro- 


ROMANTIC  PERIOD  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA        13 

ceeding.  Elsewhere  the  red-skinned  South  American  In- 
dian was  still  permitted  to  attend  to  his  own  affairs 
himself  and  had  not  yet  been  forced  into  the  fatally  hard 
labor  of  the  mines,  which  sent  so  many  millions  of  these 
unfortunate  folk  to  their  death. 

It  is  true  that  the  pity  which  cannot  fail  to  be  meted  out 
for  the  sufferings  of  these  long-dead  Indians  is  in  some 
instances  apt  to  be  tempered  by  a  closer  acquaintance 
with  some  branches  of  the  modem  race.  After  reading 
''Richard  Spruce,"  for  instance,  the  inclination  is  to  be- 
stow an  extra  amount  of  commiseration  on  the  aboriginal 
female  and  a  lesser  amount  on  the  male.  That  botanist's 
opinion  of  the  average  Indian  of  the  forests  with  whom 
he  was  brought  into  contact  was  that : 

"He  is  naturally  apathetic  and  dislikes  exertion;  but 
he  makes  his  wife  work  like  a  slave.  On  the  Rio  Negro 
I  have  seen  the  poor  women  grating  mandiocca  by  moon- 
light until  midnight;  and  they  must  be  stirring  before 
daybreak  to  give  their  husband  his  morning  drink ;  while 
he,  extended  in  his  hammock,  is  warming  his  nether  ex- 
tremities near  a  fire  which  must  not  be  allowed  to  go  out. 
When  I  had  seen  this,  I  felt  no  pity  for  the  Indian  when 
the  white  man  took  him  by  force  to  row  his  boats  and  do 
other  work  for  him." 

But  this  comment  affords  no  excuse  for  the  methods 
adopted  by  the  conquistador es. 

Those  who  endeavor  to  follow  the  workings  of  fate  and 
of  a  poetic  justice,  which  is  only  too  rare  on  this  earth, 
may  derive  an  instance  from  the  retribution  which  over- 
took the  Spaniards  in  their  inhuman  policy  toward  the 
aboriginal  tribes.  So  stupendous  was  the  wastage  of 
native  life  that  the  Indian's  best  friend.  Bishop  Las 
Casas,  saw  no  other  remedy  but  the  homeopathic  measure 
of  the  introduction  of  the  Negro  slave — in  order  that  the 
sturdy  African  should  bear  part  of  the  other's  burden, 
and  that,  instead  of  the  extinction  of  the  one  race,  the 
two  should  continue  to  live  and  to  labor  side  by  side. 


14       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

The  remedy  served  well  enough  to  tide  over  the  crisis : 
but  it  was  in  this  remedy  that  lay  the  seeds  of  incalculable 
loss  and  tribulation  to  the  Spaniards  of  the  succeeding 
generations.  For  it  was  this  transport  of  the  Negro 
slave  from  West  Africa  to  South  America  that  brought 
upon  the  scene  such  men  as  Sir  John  Hawkins  and  his 
bold  sea-dogs.  And  when  the  Spaniards,  resenting  the 
growing  familiarity  of  these  sailors  with  their  tropical 
coasts,  turned  upon  them  to  chase  them  away,  they  fre- 
quently enough  found  the  proof  that  they  had  caught  a 
tartar  in  the  torn  planks  of  their  sinking  galleons  and 
the  smoke  and  flames  of  their  burning  coast  towns. 

So  the  early  English  navigators — although  they  had 
no  intention  of  posing  for  the  part — of  which,  indeed,  they 
were  profoundly  unconscious — served  as  very  efficient 
avenging  spirits  of  the  countless  slaughtered  Indians. 
At  the  same  time  it  must  be  candidly  supposed  that  this 
retribution  would  never  have  been  brought  about  had  not 
the  Spaniards  begun  their  long,  incessant,  and  hopeless 
struggle  to  retain  as  their  close  and  private  property  the 
territories  of  a  continent  and  a  half ! 

It  is  clear  enough  now  that  no  empire,  however  ma- 
jestic, could  build  a  fence  strong  enough  to  shut  off  so 
large  a  part  of  the  world  from  the  rest  of  the  earth's 
inhabitants.  But  Spain  made  a  conscientious  and  costly 
endeavor  to  achieve  the  impossible,  and  it  was  in  the 
course  of  frustrating  this  attempt  that  the  admirable 
group  of  Elizabeth's  English  sailors  learned  much  of 
their  seamanship ! 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   FIKST  ENGLISH   MAEINEKS   TO   SAIL   THE   SPANISH   MAIN 

William  Hawkins  not  the  first  Englishman  to  sail  South  American  seas — 
Sir  Thomas  Pert — Thomas  Tison — William  Hawkins'  voyage  to  the 
Brazilian  coast — Marine  superstitions  of  the  period — William  Haw- 
kins' intercourse  with  the  Brazilian  Indians — One  of  these  latter  is 
taken  to  England  to  be  shown  to  King  Henry  VIII — Notwithstanding 
the  Indian's  death,  the  English  hostage  is  released  by  the  Brazilians 
on  William  Hawkins'  return  to  Brazil — Other  early  voyagers — Robert 
Reniger — Thomas  Borey — Thomas  Pudsey — Sir  John  Hawkins — Span- 
ish attitude  toward  foreign  seamen — Pope  Alexander  VI's  division 
of  the  earth — Establishment  of  the  Inquisition  in  Lima — John  Haw- 
kins carries  slaves  from  West  Africa  to  Spanish  America — Respecta- 
bility of  the  sixteenth-century  slave  trade — General  theories  concern- 
ing the  Negro — John  Hawkins'  financial  supporters — Reception  of  his 
squadron  in  Hispaniola  and  on  the  mainland — A  profitable  expedi- 
tion— John  Hawkins'  second  voyage — Episodes  in  West  Africa — Trade 
complications  in  Spanish  America — The  ways  of  imperial  ofiicialdom 
— On  his  next  voyage  John  Hawkins  is  accompanied  by  Drake — 
Drake's  youth — How  his  early  days  were  spent — Hawkins'  squadron 
off  West  Africa — Fruitless  treaty  with  a  Negro  potentate — Increas- 
ing official  difiiculties  concerning  the  disposal  of  slaves  in  Spanish 
America — John  Hawkins  storms  Rio  de  la  Hacha — His  squadron 
treacherously  attacked  in  the  harbor  of  San  Juan  de  Ulloa — Losses 
of  the  English  after  a  desperate  defense — Escape  of  John  Hawkins 
in  the  Minion,  and  of  Drake  in  the  Judith — Privations  endured  on 
the  homeward  voyage — Drake's  voyage  in  the  Pacha — El  Draque 
avenges  San  Juan  de  Ulloa — Depredations  on  the  Spanish  Main — 
The  Pacific  sighted — Captain  John  Oxenham  penetrates  to  these  for- 
bidden waters — His  achievements  there — Some  of  his  men  betrayed 
by  fioating  feathers — Capture  and  execution  of  his  company — Drake, 
Queen  Elizabeth,  and  King  Philip  of  Spain — ^Circumnavigation  of  the 
world — His  squadron,  men,  and  sentiments — Some  episodes  of  the 
voyage — Paraphernalia  of  a  progress  of  state — Feats  of  compression — 
Drake  loses  his  cap  to  a  Southern  Indian — Tha  tragedy  of  San  Julian 
— Execution  of  Captain  Doughty — ^The  Golden  Hind  sails  alone  into 
the  Pacific  Ocean — The  rich  reward  of  his  daring — The  toll  of  the 
South  Sea — Lady  Elliott  Drake  and  Miss  Zelia  Nuttall  on  Sir  Francis 
Drake — A  notable  map — Episodes  on  the  Pacific  coast — Effect  on  the 
morale  of  the  Spaniards — Drake's  last  voyage — In  the  course  of  a 

J5 


16       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

less  successful  expedition — Sir  John  Hawkins  and  Sir  Francis  Drake 
die  witliin  a  short  period  of  each  other — Andrew  Barker's  voyage — 
Mutinous  spirit  of  the  officers  and  crew — Punishment  dealt  out  to 
the  survivors  of  an  imfortunate  expedition — Richard  Hawkins'  voy- 
age to  the  Spanish  Main  in  1593 — His  theories  concerning  the  nomen- 
clature of  ships — His  prolonged  fight  against  an  overwhelmingly  su- 
perior Spanish  fleet,  commanded  by  Don  Beltran  de  Castro — His  im- 
pressions and  observations — Chivalry  displayed  by  the  Spaniards — 
Some  notable  booty. 

THAT  fine  old  sailor,  William  Hawkins,  has  some 
just — if  comparatively  vicarious! — demands  on 
posterity,  for  the  reason  that  he  was  the  father 
of  Sir  John  Hawkins.  But,  beyond  this,  he  has  more 
varied  claims  to  celebrity.  He  was  the  first  English- 
man who  ever  let  fly  the  sails  of  his  own  ship  to  belly 
out  before  the  trade  winds,  and  to  bear  his  staggering 
vessel  on  a  successful  voyage  down  the  latitudes,  leaving 
the  Spanish  Main  to  the  north,  as  far  as  the  coast  of 
Brazil. 

It  must  not  be  gathered  from  this  that  William  Haw- 
kins was  the  first  Englishman  to  sail  the  South  American 
seas.  As  early  as  1516  a  certain  Sir  Thomas  Pert,  in 
company  with  Sebastian  Cabot,  is  said  to  have  penetrated 
to  these  waters,  and  to  have  made  a  half-hearted  attempt 
at  a  landing  at  the  island  of  Hispaniola.  But,  according 
to  Hakluyt,  it  appears  that  Sir  Thomas  Pert  was  one 
''whose  faint  heart  was  the  cause  that  the  voyage  tooke 
none  effect;  if,  I  say,  such  manly  courage,  whereof  wee 
have  spoken,  had  not  at  that  time  beene  wanting,  it  might 
happily  have  come  to  passe,  that  that  rich  treasurie  called 
Perularia,  (which  is  nowe  in  Spaine  in  the  Citie  of  Sivill, 
and  so  named,  for  that  in  it  is  kept  the  infinite  riches 
brought  thither  from  the  newfoundland  of  Peru)  might 
long  since  have  beene  in  the  tower  of  London,  to  the  kings 
great  honour  and  wealth  of  this  realme." 

Nor  was  William  Hawkins  the  first  Englishman  to  set 
his  foot  on  South  American — or  West  Indian — soil.  It 
is  known  that  in  1526  there  was  resident  somewhere  in 


THE  FIRST  ENGLISH  MARINERS  17 

the  depths  of  those  then  mysterious  latitudes  an  English- 
man named  Thomas  Tison,  who  is  supposed  to  have  acted 
secretly  as  the  agent  of  some  English  merchants,  and  to 
whom  consignments  of  armor  and  other  commodities  were 
sent  from  time  to  time.  Beyond  this,  nothing  seems  to 
be  known  of  the  enterprising  spirit  of  Thomas  Tison. 

In  Pedro  de  Mendoza's  expedition,  moreover,  which 
sailed  from  Seville  in  1534,  and  which  founded  the  first 
European  settlements  in  the  Rio  de  la  Plata  and  in  Para- 
guay, were  two  or  three  Englishmen,  the  names  of  two 
of  which  are  thus  rendered  in  the  Spanish  records: 
Richarte  Limon  and  Juan  de  Rute. 

William  Hawkins,  the  first  Englishman  who  success- 
fully sailed  his  own  ship  to  South  America,  is  said  to  have 
been  one  of  King  Henry  VIII 's  most  valued  sea-captains. 
William  Hawkins  made  three  voyages  to  Brazil.  On  his 
first  voyage  he  left  the  port  of  Plymouth  in  the  year  1530. 
This  was  only  some  thirty  years  after  the  Portuguese 
navigators  had  first  set  eyes  on  that  tropical  shore,  and 
those  on  board  his  vessel — the  Paul  of  Plymouth,  of  two 
hundred  and  fifty  tons — seemed  to  have  been  little  con- 
cerned with  the  scanty  Portuguese  colonists  of  that  pe- 
riod. 

William  Hawkins  appears  to  have  picked  up  a  certain 
amount  of  information  by  one  means  and  another.  So 
that,  although  he  was  sailing  into  seas  unknown  to  him, 
he  was  at  all  events  spared  the  terrors  of  the  first  Latin 
mariners  of  the  Atlantic,  who,  when  caught  up  in  the 
ceaseless  and  unchanging  rush  of  the  trade  winds,  made 
certain  that  their  wicked  and  damnable  daring  in  trying 
to  penetrate  into  the  regions  beyond  the  world  was  being 
punished,  and  that  Satan  had  sent  this  extraordinary 
breeze  to  blow  them  straight  into  the  mouth  of  hell,  which 
was  supposed  to  be  yawning  redly  somewhere  below  the 
horizon  just  ahead. 

Hawkins  arrived  in  Brazil  before  the  coast  had  been 
regularly  settled  by  the  Portuguese,  and  when  he  cast 


18       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

anchor  before  those  shining  tropical  beaches  backed  by 
their  palms  he  had  an  opportunity  of  personal  inter- 
course with  the  Indians.  He  was  anxious  to  show  one  of 
these  painted  and  feathered  specimens  of  humanity  to 
King  Henry  VIII — a  desire  that  seems  to  have  been  a 
popular  weakness  of  that  period.  Where  we  are  satis- 
fied to-day  with  bringing  home  a  monkey  or  a  paroquet, 
the  sixteenth-century  traveler  had  large  ideas,  and  pre- 
ferred a  human  curiosity! 

So  when  William  Hawkins  sailed  back  to  England  he 
bore  with  him  a  Brazilian  chief,  as  a  hostage,  for  whose 
safe  return  he  had  left  behind  one  of  his  ship's  company, 
Martin  Cockaram  of  Plymouth. 

The  Brazilian  chief  duly  arrived  in  England,  and  was 
exhibited  in  his  feathers  and  paint,  in  fact,  *'in  all  his 
wild  accoutrements"  to  bluff  King  Hal,  who  doubtless 
laughed  at  the  man  as  bluffly  as  he  did  at  most  things.  In- 
deed, as  the  chronicler  continues,  he  was  one:  *'at  the 
sight  of  whom  the  King  and  all  the  nobility  did  not  a 
little  marvaile,  and  not  without  cause,  for  in  his  cheekes 
were  holes  made  according  to  their  savage  manner,  and 
therein  small  bones  were  planted,  standing  an  inch  out 
from  the  said  holes,  which  in  his  owne  country  was  re- 
puted for  a  great  braverie. ' ' 

But  the  poor  denizen  of  the  land  of  palms  and  sun- 
shine and  blinding  white  sand  did  not  long  survive  the 
sensation  he  had  caused.  His  was  the  fate  of  many  fellow 
martyrs,  to  say  nothing  of  millions  of  those  marmosets 
and  parrots  already  referred  to!  Strange  people, 
stranger  food,  and  strangest  climate  proved  rapidly  fatal 
to  the  first  native  of  Brazil  who  set  his  foot  on  the  shores 
of  England. 

It  is  true  that  when  William  Hawkins  set  out  again 
for  Brazil  in  1532  the  Indian  was  still  alive.  True  to  his 
word,  William  Hawkins  took  him  on  board  his  vessel, 
but  the  man — with  a  complete  and  provoking  disregard 
for  the  safety  of  Martin  Cockaram  of  Plymouth — died 


THE  FIRST  ENGLISH  MARINERS  19 

on  the  outward  voyage.  Nevertheless,  on  the  arrival  of 
the  vessel,  when  explanation  had  been  made  and  be- 
lieved, Cockaram  was  freely  allowed  to  return  to  his 
compatriots,  a  circumstance  which  redounds  infinitely 
to  the  good  faith  of  both  parties. 

After  this  there  are  some  sufficiently  vague  accounts 
of  various  voyages  undertaken  about  1540  with  profit  to 
Brazil  by  the  Southampton  merchants,  Robert  Eeniger 
and  Thomas  Borey.  In  1542,  moreover,  a  certain 
Thomas  Pudsey  of  Southampton  is  said  not  only  to  have 
sailed  out  to  Bahia  de  Todos  os  Santos  in  Brazil,  but 
actually  to  have  built  a  fort  there. 

The  next  to  take  up  the  quest  of  regular  commerce  in 
the  southern  seas  was  William  Hawkins '  son,  the  famous 
Sir  John,  who  undertook  his  first  important  voyage  in 
1562. 

By  this  time,  the  frontier  delimitations  of  the  whole 
globe  had  been  settled  between  the  Spaniards  and  Portu- 
guese. Pope  Alexander  VI,  when  appealed  to,  had  ar- 
ranged the  afiPair  in  a  manner  which  contemporary  opinion 
considered  as  inspired.  He  had  simply  taken  a  pen,  and 
had  drawn  a  direct  line  one  hundred  leagues  westward 
of  the  Azores  from  pole  to  pole.  Excluding  Europe,  the 
effect  of  this  partition — though  the  boundary  was  after- 
wards moved  closer  to  the  setting  sun — was  that  all  the 
lands  and  oceans  to  the  west  of  this  line  belonged  to  the 
Spaniards,  and  all  the  lands  and  oceans  to  the  east  of 
it  became  the  property  of  the  Portuguese. 

This  is  undoubtedly  the  most  comprehensive  present 
ever  recorded  in  history.  Moreover,  the  mere  fact  of  a 
subsequent  heretic  protest  to  the  effect  that  the  Pope  had 
won  this  record  reputation  for  generosity  at  the  expense 
of  other  people's  property  scarcely  affected  the  value  of 
the  gift  at  the  time  it  was  made ! 

By  this  time,  too,  the  lesser  lights  of  the  Roman  Church 
had  been  busy  in  their  own  way,  and  as  early  as  1533  the 
Inquisition  set  out  across  the  ocean  and  established  itself 


20       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

in  its  dungeon-infested  palace  in  Lima  in  order  to  be 
prepared  with  some  acute  physical  discouragements  for 
those  heretics  who  might  dare  to  sully  the  South  Amer- 
ican atmosphere  with  the  blight  of  some  foreign  faith ! 

So  the  empire  of  the  New  World  had  already  issued  its 
warning  and  clanged  to  its  gates,  when  the  free-lance, 
John  Hawkins,  dared  to  sail  southwards  through  the 
bright  blue  waters  and  the  shoals  of  flying-fish  to  the  out- 
raged and  threatening  shadow  of  the  Spanish  Main.  His 
advent  heralded  an  unquiet  period  for  the  authorities  of 
the  Indies,  for  he  was  the  first  bold  wasp  to  buzz  about 
the  ears  of  the  Spanish  giant. 

Hawkins'  first  relations  with  the  Spaniards  of  South 
America  were  by  no  means  hostile.  His  little  vessels — 
the  Soloman,  the  Swallow,  and  the  Jonas — of  which  the 
largest  was  of  120  tons  and  the  smallest  40 — carried  that 
cargo  for  which  the  whites  of  South  America  were  clam- 
oring. Under  the  reeking  hatches  her  hold  was  crammed 
full  of  valuable  black  ivory — Negro  slaves !  Hawkins  had 
sailed  from  England  to  Sierra  Leone,  and  had  gathered 
these  in  with  the  scant  ceremony  to  which  the  unfortunate 
human  chattels  were  destined  to  become  accustomed  in 
those  days. 

It  is  no  doubt  regrettable  enough  that  the  English 
should  have  made  their  first  definite  trading  appearance 
in  South  America  in  the  light  of  slave  carriers.  But 
the  ethics  of  the  sixteenth  century  differed  widely  from 
those  of  to-day.  At  that  period  there  was  no  question 
even  of  by  how  much  the  Negro  was  less  than  the  white ; 
the  only  surmise  was  by  how  little  he  was  better  than 
the  beasts !  This  doubt  was  fully  shared  by  the  clergy, 
who,  for  a  long  period  after  the  Negro  had  become  Chris- 
tianized, hesitated  to  admit  him  to  the  sacraments.  In 
fact,  although  humane  persons  were  protesting  against 
the  ill-treatment  of  slaves,  it  was  far  from  occurring 
either  to  cleric  or  to  layman  that  there  was  anything  rep- 
rehensible in  the  actual  traffic  in  human  beings. 


THE  FIRST  ENGLISH  MARINERS  21 

Indeed,  John  Hawkins  had  very  solid  commercial  com- 
pany in  his  venture,  for,  "being  amongst  other  partic- 
ulars assured,  that  negroes  were  very  good  Marchandise 
in  Hispaniola,  and  that  store  of  negroes  might  easily  bee 
had  upon  the  coast  of  Guinea,  resolved  with  himself  to 
make  triall  thereof,  and  communicated  that  devise  with 
his  worshipfuU  friendes  of  London:  namely  mth  Sir 
Lionell  Ducket,  Sir  Thomas  Lodge,  M.  Gunson  his  father 
in  law.  Sir  William  Winter,  M.  Bromfield,  and  others. 
All  which  persons  liked  so  well  of  his  intention,  that  they 
became  liberall  contributers  and  adventurers  in  the  ac- 
tion." 

It  is  important  for  Hawkins '  repute  that  this  should  be 
made  clear.  His  morality  must  no  more  be  judged  by 
this  commerce  than  must  Queen  Elizabeth's  table  man- 
ners from  the  fact  that  she — and  all  her  courtiers — fre- 
quently used  fingers  where  we  should  use  forks.  John 
Hawkins  was  not  going  in  the  least  against  contemporary 
opinion  when  he  carried  to  Hispaniola  three  hundred  of 
those  unwilling  but  profitable  passengers! 

If  anything  will  make  this  clear  it  is  his  instructions  to 
the  officers  of  his  squadron  on  a  subsequent  slave-carry- 
ing voyage:  "Serve  God  dayly,  love  one  another,  pre- 
serve your  victuals,  beware  of  fire,  and  keep  good  com- 
panie." 

These  show  to  us  John  Hawkins  as  we  would  have  him : 
they  are  emphatically  not  the  words  of  a  man  with  an 
evil  conscience. 

There  may  yet  come  a  time  when  we  of  to-day  shall  be 
held  up  to  unborn  generations  as  interesting  examples 
of  a  barbarous  age  when  men  forced  horses  to  labor  by 
flogging  them  and  by  stabbing  steel  points  into  their 
sides ! 

When  Hawkins  arrived  off  the  great  Island  of  His- 
paniola he  was  received  with  mixed  feelings.  So  great 
had  become  the  demand  for  Negroes  that — although  the 
local  authorities  fumed  and  chafed — he  was  welcomed  by 


S2       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

the  colonists  with  open  arms,  and  managed  to  dispose  of 
his  sorry  human  wares  at  an  enormous  profit.  As  a  re- 
sult, his  three  ships,  accompanied  now  by  two  additional 
freighters,  returned,  loaded  as  deep  as  they  could  con- 
veniently sail  with  hides,  ginger,  sugar,  and  some  far  less 
bulky  packets  of  pearls ! 

So  brilliant  were  the  financial  results  of  this  trip  that 
Hawkins  undertook  another  voyage  with  two  ships  and 
two  barks  in  1564.  On  this  occasion  his  squadron  was  a 
considerably  more  imposing  one.  It  consisted  of  the 
Jesus  of  Luheck,  a  great  ship  of  some  700  tons ;  the  Tiger, 
a  bark  of  50  tons,  and  the  Soloman  and  Sivallow,  which 
had  accompanied  him  on  the  previous  voyage.  The 
squadron  was  manned  by  170  men.  In  the  course  of  their 
slave  gathering  on  the  west  coast  of  Africa  the  expedi- 
tion would  seem  to  have  come  into  contact  with  some 
peculiarly  unsophisticated  tribes  of  Africans,  who  at 
first  took  no  notice  of  the  arquebuses,  ''but  used  a  mar- 
vellous crying  in  their  fight  with  leaping  and  turning 
their  tayles,  that  it  was  most  strange  to  see,  and  gave  us 
great  pleasure  to  beholde  them.  At  the  last,  one  being 
hurt  with  a  harquebuz  upon  the  thigh,  looked  upon  his 
wound  and  wist  not  howe  it  came,  because  hee  could  not 
see  the  pellet." 

Then,  w^hen  the  hungry  holds  had  been  restocked  with 
human  freight,  the  vessels  sailed  across  the  warm  ocean 
to  the  tropical  islands  of  the  Spanish  Empire. 

But  this  time  the  various  Spanish  governors  showed 
themselves  more  resolute  in  their  determination  to  pre- 
vent any  trade  between  these  foreigners  and  heretics — 
intruding  now  for  the  second  time — and  the  colonists. 
Moreover,  when  these  latter  met  with  a  governor  who 
was  more  amenable  in  this  respect,  they  found  that  both 
the  officials  and  the  colonists  were  now  intent  on  obtain- 
ing the  slaves  at  a  price  which  was  very  far  below  their 
market  value.  There  were  more  departments  than  is 
usually  imagined  in  the  profession  of  an  Elizabethan  navi- 


THE  FIRST  ENGLISH  MARINERS  23 

gator.  Hawkins  had  now  to  meet  these  Spanish  wiles 
with  some  guile  of  his  own.  So  he  sent  for  the  "princi- 
pals of  the  Towne,  and  made  a  shewe  hee  would  depart, 
declaring  himselfe  to  be  very  sory  that  he  had  so  much 
troubled  them,  and  also  that  he  had  sent  for  the  gov- 
ernour  to  come  down,  seeing  nowe  his  pretence  was  to 
depart." 

This  ruse  prevailed,  and  the  Spaniards,  falling  into  the 
trap,  begged  him  to  remain.  Nevertheless  he  had  to  re- 
peat such  haggler's  tricks  as  this  on  several  occasions 
before  he  concluded  a  satisfactory  sale  of  all  his  slaves. 
But  when  it  came  to  the  demand  for  a  royal  tax  of  thirty 
ducats  for  every  slave  sold,  stronger  measures  became 
necessary.  Nothing  short  of  a  landing  party  of  one  hun- 
dred men  armed  to  the  teeth  had  to  be  brought  forward 
as  an  argument  here.  But  these  proved  entirely  success- 
ful in  convincing  the  governor  that  the  ordinary  tariff  of 
seven  and  a  half  per  cent,  was  all  that  could  be  reason- 
ably demanded  in  this  case. 

After  this  another  feint  of  departure  brought  up  the 
buyers  in  earnest,  and  the  last  slaves  were  satisfactorily 
disposed  of.  Then  the  squadron  set  sail  for  England,  and 
arrived  safely  at  Padstow  in  Cornwall,  with  a  total  loss 
of  no  more  than  twenty  men,  "and  with  great  profit  to 
the  venturers  of  the  said  voyage,  as  also  to  the  whole 
realme,  in  bringing  home  both  golde,  silver,  Pearles,  and 
other  Jewels  great  store." 

On  his  next  voyage  Hawkins  was  accompanied  by 
Drake — El  Draque,  of  the  Spaniards — who  commanded 
the  little  fifty-ton  bark  Judith.  Heroic  cycles  would  seem 
to  belong  to  the  youthful,  as  is  surely  exemplified  looking 
backwards  from  Napoleon's  generals  across  the  ages.  At 
the  time  of  this  voyage  Drake  was  twenty-two  years  of 
age!  But  he  could  alreadj^  look  back  upon  an  adven- 
turous life. 

Drake's  early  youth  in  his  father's  cottage  on  the  beau- 
tiful banks  of  the  Tavy  must  have  been  of  a  scrambling 


2*       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

and  rough-and-ready  order,  for  the  means  of  the  family- 
were  slender,  and  he  was  the  eldest  of  twelve!  It  may 
have  been  his  father's  appointment  as  chaplain  to  the 
fleet  stationed  in  the  Medway  which  gave  young  Francis 
Drake  his  first  taste  for  the  sea — or,  to  be  more  accurate, 
materialized  the  instinct  that  had  been  his  from  his  birth. 
In  any  case  he  was  early  afloat.  At  the  age  of  eighteen 
he  had  been  purser  of  a  bark  trading  with  the  ports  of 
Biscay.  And  now  here  he  was,  in  command  of  the  little 
Judith,  under  the  leadership  of  Hawkins,  his  commodore 
and  fellow  Devonian,  on  a  venture  to  these  balmy  new 
Southern  territories  that  held  fabulous  riches  and  moun- 
tains of  gold — somewhere  inland ! 

The  expedition,  which  sailed  in  1567,  paid  its  indispen- 
sable preliminary  call  on  the  West  African  coast.  On 
this  occasion  they  found  the  natives  warier  than  before. 
Sambo  had  no  more  mind  to  turn  himself  into  merchandise 
than  had  a  sheep  to  transform  itself  into  mutton.  But 
these  navigating  traders  were  men  of  resource.  They 
made  an  alliance  with  a  Negro  king  who  had  fallen  out 
with  a  neighboring  monarch.  By  the  terms  of  this,  Haw- 
kins, in  return  for  his  military  assistance,  was  to  receive 
all  the  prisoners  captured  in  the  proposed  battle.  When 
the  battle  had  been  fought  and  the  victory  had  been  won, 
Hawkins  observed  with  pleasure  that  his  dusky  ally  had 
captured  some  six  hundred  prisoners :  he  himself  had 
secured  two  hundred  and  fifty.  But  the  next  morning's 
sun  rose  on  a  scene  of  vacant  deceit !  The  African  victor 
had  disappeared — and  he  had  taken  his  six  hundred  pris- 
oners with  him!  The  sable  potentate,  it  appears,  was 
also  a  man  of  resource! 

So  Hawkins  was  obliged  to  set  up  to  the  West  with  no 
more  than  the  two  hundred  and  fifty  Negroes  who  were 
the  trophies  of  his  own  men's  prowess.  Arrived  off 
Spanish  America,  they  found  the  colonists  were  once 
again  only  too  glad  of  an  opportunity  of  trading  with 
them.     But  on  this  occasion  the  authorities  at  Rio  de  la 


THE  FIRST  ENGLISH  MARINERS  25 

Hacha  were  firm  in  their  refusal  to  permit  any  dealings 
with  the  foreigners.  Enraged  at  this,  Hawkins  stormed 
the  town,  though  the  nations  were  at  peace,  and  succeeded 
in  secretly  disposing  of  all  but  fifty  of  his  slaves  to  the 
colonists  in  the  night.  But  this  act  cost  him  the  bitter 
enmity  of  the  Spaniards. 

Soon  after  this  a  storm  drove  Hawkins'  squadron  to 
the  north,  and  they  took  shelter  at  the  Mexican  port  of 
San  Juan  de  Ulloa,  where  a  number  of  treasure  ships 
lay  at  anchor.  The  situation  was  a  curious  one,  and 
doubtless  the  English  sailors  fretted  not  a  little  at  their 
bits  at  being  crowded  so  temptingly  close  together  in  the 
small  harbor  with  these  vessels  laden  with  gold  and  silver. 
Nevertheless  they  honorably  kept  the  peace,  and  suffered 
the  treasure  to  remain  in  what  they  considered  the  wrong 
holds !  As  for  the  Spanish  officials  of  the  port,  they  be- 
gan to  breathe  freely  again  when  they  found  that  these 
dreaded  Northern  sailors  only  required  to  purchase  some 
victuals. 

The  next  day  thirteen  Spanish  vessels  appeared  off 
the  harbor.  Hawkins,  viewing  this  spectacle  with  some 
unease,  sent  to  ascertain  their  intentions,  and  received 
an  assurance  that  these  were  friendly.  So,  unopposed  by 
the  English,  the  thirteen  vessels  entered  the  already 
crowded  harbor.  That  which  followed  has  been  told 
many  hundred  times.  The  Spaniards  broke  faith,  and 
the  quiet  of  the  port  was  shattered  by  the  sudden  din  of 
battle  and  slaughter,  as  the  Spaniards  treacherously  took 
advantage  of  the  close  proximity  of  the  vessels  to  attack 
the  English. 

The  majority  of  these  were  slaughtered  before  they  had 
time  to  prepare  themselves  for  defense  (Sir  Francis 
Drake  is  reported  on  a  subsequent  occasion  to  have  esti- 
mated the  dead  at  three  hundred),  but  some  were  en- 
abled to  take  a  heavy  toll  of  their  assailants.  Before  the 
fight  was  ended  the  Spanish  admiral 's  vessel  and  two  of 
her  consorts  were  destroyed,  and  presently  the  lazy,  flap- 


26       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

ping  buzzards  glutted  themselves  with  equal  zest  on  Eng- 
lish and  Spanish  corpses. 

Only  the  Minion,  in  which  was  Hawkins,  and  the  little 
Judith,  commanded  by  Drake,  managed  to  escape.  Un- 
prepared for  sea  as  they  were,  they  made  their  way  to 
England  as  best  they  could,  and — mauled  and  short- 
handed — arrived  in  a  pitiable  condition,  their  crews  hav- 
ing barely  kept  themselves  alive  on  the  ships'  rats  and 
on  their  pet  monkeys  and  parrots,  and  such  other  crea- 
tures as  they  had  collected. 

''If  all  the  miseries  and  troublesome  affaires,"  says 
John  Hawkins  bitterly, ' '  of  this  sorrowf ull  voyage  should 
be  perfectly  and  thoroughly  written,  there  should  neede 
a  painefull  man  with  his  pen,  and  as  great  a  time  as  he 
had  that  wrote  the  lives  and  deaths  of  the  Martyrs." 

An  English  Merchant,  John  Chilton,  who  is  quoted 
later,  remarked  on  a  relic  of  the  tragic  expedition  which 
he  saw  in  the  Mexican  town  of  Tehuantepec:  "Heere  in 
the  yeere  1572  I  saw  a  piece  of  ordinance  of  brasse,  called 
a  demy  culverin,  which  came  out  of  a  ship  called  the  Jesus 
of  Lubec,  which  captaine  Hawkins  left  in  S.  Juan  de 
Ulloa,  being  in  fight  with  the  Spanyards  in  the  yeere  1568 ; 
which  piece  they  afterwards  carried  100  leagues  by  land 
over  mighty  mountains  to  the  sayd  city,  to  be  embarked 
there  for  the  Philippinas. " 

The  careers  of  Hawkins  and  Drake  seem  to  have  been 
curiously  bound  up  with  one  another.  This  first  really 
serious  misfortune  in  the  careers  of  both  they  suffered 
in  company,  and  the  two  were  destined  to  sail  together 
in  their  final  great  venture — the  memorable  voyage  from 
which  neither  returned. 

The  actual  monetary  loss  incurred  by  the  expedition  in 
this  attack  at  San  Juan  de  Ulloa  was  two  millions  of 
ducats ;  but  it  would  have  taken  a  great  many  such  dis- 
asters to  discourage  that  great  seaman  Drake  perma- 
nently. Four  years  or  so  after  that  affair  he  hoisted 
his  sails  again  for  the  forbidden  coasts  in  the  Pacha,  a 


THE  FIRST  ENGLISH  MARINERS  27 

vessel  of  seventy  tons,  and  his  brother  accompanied  him 
in  the  Swan,  a  little  craft  of  twenty-five  tons.  Here  was 
a  typical  expedition  such  as  set  out  from  the  west  country 
in  those  days :  a  squadron  of  two  vessels  not  mustering  a 
hundred  tons  between  the  pair  of  them,  and  having  a 
total  complement  of  seventy-three  men  and  boys ! 

It  is  true  that  Drake  was  subsequently  joined  on  the 
South  American  coast  by  an  Isle  of  Wight  ship,  com- 
manded by  a  Captain  Rawse,  that  brought  the  strength 
of  his  crews  up  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  men.  But  even 
so,  what  a  force  with  which  to  tweak  the  might  of  Spain 
in  its  own  waters ! 

It  is  only  possible,  of  course,  to  follow  the  doings  of 
Drake  and  of  his  peers  in  the  most  sketchy  fashion  here. 
It  is — or  should  be — a  matter  of  commonest  history  how 
the  Pacha  became  a  terror  to  the  Spanish  Main,  and  how 
fully  El  Draque  avenged  San  Juan  de  Ulloa.  He  paid 
special  attention  to  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  for  it  was 
across  this  that  ran  the  famous  ''gold  roan,"  the  track 
cut  through  the  dense  tropical  forest,  along  which  the 
trains  of  laden  mules  transported  the  riches  of  Peru  and 
the  Pacific  to  the  Atlantic  coast  for  shipment  to  Europe. 
And  when  Drake  and  his  men,  boldly  penetrating  in- 
land, planted  themselves  astride  this  road,  there  was  a 
pretty  flutter  among  the  royal  caravans,  and  a  profitable 
spilling  of  gold  and  silver! 

It  was  on  one  of  these  incursions  that  Drake,  between 
the  graceful  palm-tops  and  the  bright  festoons  of  tropical 
flowers,  caught  sight  of  the  Pacific  Ocean  glittering  in  the 
distant  West.  Then  and  there  he  swore  an  oath  that  he 
would  one  day  navigate  those  forbidden  waters  for  the 
honor  of  England. 

But,  though  he  kept  his  word,  he  was  not  destined  to 
be  the  first  Englishman  to  float  upon  those  waters.  John 
Oxenham  has  that  honor.  In  1575  that  daring  captain 
sailed  to  the  neck  of  the  continent  with  seventy  men  in  a 
ship  of  one  hundred  and  forty  tons,  ran  his  vessel  ashore. 


28       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

concealed  her  with  a  mass  of  tropical  vegetation,  and 
forced  his  way  with  all  his  men  through  the  dense  forests 
of  the  isthmus  until  he  gained  the  Pacific  shore.  There 
he  built  himself  a  pinnace  forty-five  feet  in  length,  and 
in  it  he  and  his  men  floated  at  length  upon  the  strictly 
guarded  waters  of  the  South  Sea ! 

The  material  rewards  of  this  great  venture  were  not 
long  in  forthcoming.  Of  two  barks  captured,  the  one 
yielded  sixty  thousand  pesos  in  gold,  the  other,  one  hun- 
dred thousand  pesos  in  silver.  After  obtaining  some 
pearls,  in  addition,  he  proceeded  inland  up  the  river. 

The  outraged  Spaniards  were  now  in  full  chase.  A 
strong  force  of  men  sped  to  the  mouth  of  the  stream. 
Here  they  lay  in  doubt  for  a  while  as  to  which  of  the 
three  branches  they  should  ascend,  when  a  great  many 
birds'  feathers,  floating  down  in  light  betrayal  on  the 
water,  revealed  which  of  the  streams  it  was  up  which 
the  English  had  traveled.  Never  had  plucked  birds  a 
more  dramatic  posthumous  revenge! 

Owing  to  this  a  small  party  of  Englishmen  was  dis- 
covered near  the  spot,  and,  in  the  end,  after  a  fierce  fight, 
John  Oxenham,  and  those  of  his  men  who  had  not  been 
slain,  were  made  prisoners. 

Most  of  his  men  were  hanged  at  Panama,  though  one 
or  two  boys  were  spared ;  but  Oxenham  and  two  or  three 
others  were  taken  to  Lima,  and  were  imprisoned  there 
for  a  considerable  time  before  being  executed  as  a  penalty 
for  their  daring.  When  it  came  to  Drake's  turn  to  navi- 
gate the  Pacific  he  had  reason  to  suspect  that  these  com- 
rades of  his  were  actually  imprisoned  in  the  dungeons 
of  Lima,  w^hen  he  was  off  Callao,  the  port  of  that  town. 
But  neither  warnings  and  threats  directed  to  the  viceroy, 
nor  an  attack  on  the  shipping  of  the  harbor,  could  effect 
their  release,  and  Drake  was  forced,  reluctant,  to  sail 
away  and  to  leave  Oxenham  and  his  men  to  the  mercies 
of  the  Inquisition.  But  all  this  has  brought  us  ahead  of 
our  proper  period. 


THE  FIRST  ENGLISH  MARINERS  29 

Drake  returned  to  England  with  his  vessels  deeply 
laden  with  booty.  Elizabeth — who,  with  all  her  varied 
virtues,  never  lacked  an  eye  to  the  main  chance — re- 
ceived him  cordially,  and  extended  to  him  her  royal  en- 
couragement to  set  out  again.  *'We  do  account  that  he 
who  striketh  at  thee,  Drake,  striketh  at  us,"  said  the 
Queen. 

A  more  tangible  mark  of  her  favor  was  a  green  scarf 
with  ornamental  red  bands  at  both  ends,  on  which  were 
embroidered  it  is  said,  by  her  maids  of  honor — the  words, 
'^The  Lord  guide  and  preserve  thee  until  the  ende." 

And  then,  no  doubt,  she  sent  a  message  to  Philip  of 
Spain  complaining  how  little  control  she  had  over  people 
like  Sir  F.rancis  Drake !  Elizabeth  was  a  great  queen,  but 
she  had  her  weaknesses,  not  the  least  of  which  was  that 
of  opposing  guile  to  ponderous  force,  and  of  indulging  in 
that  diplomat  pastime  which  modern  slang  would  know  as 
pulling  Philip  of  Spain's  leg! 

She  found  a  more  than  willing  horse  in  Drake,  whose 
views  exactly  coincided  with  those  of  the  Queen.  In- 
deed, it  was  no  doubt  with  considerable  glee  that  he  pro- 
pounded his  theories  to  her  concerning  the  chastening  of 
Philip  of  Spain,  explaining  the  '  *  smale  good  that  was  to 
be  done  in  Spayne,  but  thonly  waye  was  to  anoy  hym 
by  his  Indyes." 

The  next  voyage  was  the  most  famous  that  Drake  un- 
dertook, for  it  was  in  the  course  of  this  that  he  circum- 
navigated the  world.  This  feat,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  had 
already  been  accomplished  by  Magellan's  expedition. 
But,  since  Magellan  had  been  slain  on  the  homeward  way, 
it  followed  that  Drake,  although  his  expedition  was  the 
second,  was  himself  actually  the  first  commanding  navi- 
gator to  sail  round  the  world. 

So  far  as  the  material  side  of  the  expedition  was  con- 
cerned, Drake  seems  to  have  intended  this  more  espe- 
cially in  reprisal  for  the  surprise  attack  on  Hawkins' 
squadron  at  San  Juan  de  Ulloa.     For  all  its  insignificant 


30       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

size,  it  was  to  be  a  punitive  fleet.  Drake  himself  made 
some  rather  quaint  and  humorous  observations  concern- 
ing his  objects :  *  *  For  the  reason  that  the  King  had,  since 
that  time,  been  his  treasurer  for  the  sum  that  had  been 
taken  from  him  ten  years  ago,  he  now  wished  to  act  as 
treasurer  of  the  King's  estate.  Therefore  the  silver 
which  he  took  from  the  King  was  for  himself ;  the  silver 
taken  from  private  individuals  was  for  his  Queen,  his 
Sovereign  Lady. ' ' 

He  embarked  on  this  voyage  in  1577,  and  this  time  he 
set  out  with  some  pomp.  It  is  true  that  the  largest 
vessel  of  his  five  ships,  the  Pelican,  was  of  no  more  than 
120  tons,  while  the  smallest,  the  Christopher,  was  a 
cockleshell  of  15  tons.  The  total  number  of  his  **  gentle- 
men and  sailors,"  too,  was  only  164. 

Nevertheless,  since  this  mission  of  Drake's  was  of  a 
far  more  official  character  than  his  previous  undertakings, 
he  made  a  brave  show  of  it.  He  saw  no  reason  why  the 
Dons  should  have  it  all  their  own  way  in  the  matter  of 
dignity  and  splendor.  So  he  adorned  his  cabin  with  much 
silver,  and  many  handsome  fittings.  "Whereby,"  as  he 
said  with  no  little  reason,  ''the  credit  and  magnificence 
of  his  native  country  might  ...  be  all  the  more  ad- 
mired. ' ' 

Who  can  fail  to  admire  the  shrewd  intelligence  of 
Drake!  Three  centuries  and  a  half  ago  he  had  already 
discovered  that  which  sovereigns  and  statesmen  have 
only  fully  begun  to  realize  to-day — that  a  little  judicious 
advertising  may  benefit  captains,  cruises,  countries,  and 
causes  quite  as  much  as  merchants  who  own  shop  win- 
dows, and  have  goods  to  sell ! 

Drake's  thoroughness  did  not  end  here.  He  engaged 
what  he  described  as  "an  orchestra  of  expert  musicians" 
who  should  serve  to  make  his  entry  into  the  Southern 
Seas  the  more  imposing.  The  addition  of  this  harmoni- 
ous luxury  to  the  crowded  space  must  have  involved  an 
astonishing  feat  in  the  way  of  packing,  when  the  size  of 


THE  FIRST  ENGLISH  MARINERS  31 

the  little  Pelican  is  remembered.  Indeed,  how  these 
musicians — crammed  sardine-like  together  with  the  ser- 
ried inhabitants,  provisions,  and  warlike  stores  of  a 
vessel  that  did  not  much  exceed  in  size  a  modern  sailing 
trawler — could  have  delivered  themselves  of  sweet  strains 
is  not  easy  to  understand.  Yet  we  are  told  that  they 
did,  and  that  they  gave  many  pleasant  entertainments 
in  tropical  seas  both  to  Drake's  fellow  countrymen  and 
to  his  Spanish  prisoners.  How  was  it  done?  How  was 
this  extraordinary  feat  of  compression  achieved?  The 
main  secret  undoubtedly  lay  in  the  fact  that  the  value  of 
ventilation  and  elbow  room  had  not  yet  been  discovered! 

After  all,  the  region  of  comfort  is  included  in  that  of 
science,  which  means  that  its  benefits  have  to  be  sought 
for  as  assiduously  as  were  once  the  unknown  lands  of  the 
earth.  But  there  all  similarity  ends;  for,  whereas  the 
horizon  of  the  earth  has  steadily  contracted,  that  of 
science  has  expanded  with  an  astonishing  rapidity. 
Surely  the  sense  of  discomfort  is  only  awakened  by  the 
knowledge  of  something  better !  We,  who  travel  in  town- 
like liners,  probably  do  not  pity  the  cooped-up  commu- 
nity of  the  Judith  any  more  deeply  than  Drake's  men  com- 
miserated their  remote  forefathers  who  pushed  out  from 
the  shore  in  little  round  basket-like  coracles  of  hide ! 

Drake  sailed  southwards  along  the  ocean  track  that  was 
gradually  becoming  familiar.  He  snapped  up  some 
prizes  in  the  Atlantic,  and  then,  taking  in  fresh  water  in 
the  broad  estuary  of  the  river  Plate,  bore  southwards  to 
the  ''roaring  forties,"  driving  through  the  warm  belt  of 
the  tropics  to  the  wild  and  gray  waters  on  the  further 
side,  until  he  came  to  an  anchorage  where  the  uncouth 
Southern  Indians  proved  themselves  moderately  friendly, 
and  some  intercourse  was  attempted.  Judging  by  the 
following  occurrence  these  wild  people  were  no  respec- 
tors  of  persons ; 

''These  people  would  not  of  a  long  time  receive  any- 
thing at  our  handes;  yet  at  length  our  generall  being 


32       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

ashore,  and  they  dauncing  after  their  accustomed  manner 
about  him,  and  hee  once  turning  his  backe  towards  them, 
one  leapt  suddenly  to  him,  and  tooke  his  cap  with  his  golde 
band  off  his  head,  and  ran  a  little  distance  from  him  and 
shared  it  with  his  fellow,  the  cap  to  the  one,  and  the  band 
to  the  other." 

Such  an  incident  must  have  been  irritating  in  the  ex- 
treme ;  but  Drake  undoubtedly  restrained  his  temper,  for 
no  untoward  incident  followed.  After  this  he  set  forth 
to  the  south  again  until  he  arrived  at  the  haven  of  San 
Julian,  a  few  degrees  north  of  the  eastern  entrance  to  the 
Straits  of  Magellan,  through  which  he  intended  to  pass. 

On  the  rugged  shore  of  San  Julian  the  English  mariners 
discovered  a  grim  object — a  giblet  pricking  up  gauntly 
against  the  desolate  sky.  It  was  the  one,  it  was  imagined, 
from  which  Magellan  had  hung  some  of  his  rebellious 
crew.  The  bones  of  the  victims,  it  is  even  said,  were 
found  close  by.  This  must  have  seemed  an  ominous  mes- 
sage, left  behind  by  the  first  ship 's  company  that  had  ever 
gained  Europe  by  that  road  to  the  second  band  of  daring 
men  who  were  about  to  follow,  from  Atlantic  to  Pacific, 
on  their  heels ! 

If  the  object  had  been  placed  there  as  a  warning  the 
sinister  omen  held  good,  and  the  superstition  that  none 
could  pass  with  impunity  into  the  Pacific  Ocean  had  yet 
another  link  added  to  the  unbroken  early  chain  of  tragedy 
that  supported  it !  It  was  in  this  very  bay  of  San  Julian 
that  occurred  the  execution  of  Doughty,  one  of  Drake's 
captains.  Both  the  cause  and  justice  of  this  act  have  been 
in  dispute  for  too  many  hundreds  of  years  to  make  it 
probable  that  the  veil  will  ever  be  lifted  from  the  tragedy. 
It  is  certain  that  Drake  received  the  sacrament  in  com- 
pany with  Doughty  on  the  last  day  of  the  condemned 
man's  life.  Then  the  two  dined  together,  pledged  each 
other,  and  immediately  afterwards  Doughty,  rising  from 
the  table,  walked  out  to  bare  his  neck  for  the  executioner 's 
ax. 


THE  FIRST  ENGLISH  MARINERS  33 

For  so  young  a  port,  San  Julian  had  a  strangely  gloomy 
record. 

After  this  Drake  navigated  the  Magellan  Straits,  where 
the  trees  *'seeme  to  stoope  with  the  burden  of  the 
weather,"  changing  the  name  of  his  vessel  from  the  Peli- 
can to  the  Golden  Hind  in  the  middle  of  the  passage. 
But,  when  he  had  emerged  into  the  Pacific  and  had  passed 
from  the  stormy  southern  waters  into  temperate  lati- 
tudes and  sunshine,  the  Golden  Hind  sailed  alone.  Of 
the  two  other  ships  which  had  been  in  his  company  when 
he  left  San  Julian,  one,  the  Marygold,  had  been  blown 
by  a  withering  tempest  to  an  unseen  death  somewhere  in 
the  dark  and  icy  South.  Captain  Winter,  of  the  second 
vessel,  the  Elizaheth,  appears  to  have  had  enough  of  it, 
and,  in  the  face  of  the  protests  of  his  crew,  put  about, 
achieved  the  feat — then  supposed  impossible — of  navi- 
gating the  Magellan  Straits  from  west  to  east,  and  sailed 
back  to  England,  arriving  at  Ilf  racombe  on  the  2d  of  June, 
1579. 

But  Drake  went  on.  That  which  he  achieved  with  a 
single  ship,  manned  now  by  a  force  of  just  over  eighty 
men,  makes  breathless  reading.  He  beat  up  the  Pacific 
coast,  and  found  the  reward  of  his  daring.  Tall  ships, 
pieces  of  eight,  bars  of  gold  and  silver,  precious  stuffs, 
silks,  Chile  wines  and  Peruvian  jewels:  all  these  came 
tumbling  in  rich  profusion  into  his  net,  while  the  aston- 
ished peaks  of  the  Andes  looked  down  with  a  dry  and 
cold  smile.  It  is  true  that  the  manner  of  boarding  the 
first  ship  they  came  across  lacked  a  good  deal  in  polite- 
ness. For  here  they  were  mistaken  for  friends,  and  were 
about  to  be  greeted  with  the  offer  of  wine  when,  **one 
of  our  company  called  Thomas  Moone  began  to  lay  about 
him,  and  strooke  one  of  the  Spaniards,  and  sayd  unto 
him,  Abaxo  Perro,  that  is  in  English,  Goe  downe,  dogge." 
All  this  time  the  panic  was  spreading  along  the  shores 
of  the  most  private  waters  of  the  Spanish  South  Sea, 
and,  lest  the  dwellers  on  those  coasts  should  experience 


34       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

an  unjustifiable  sense  of  ease  and  security,  now  and 
again  Drake  would  arrange  a  land  excursion ! 

Indeed  the  disturbance  caused  by  this  unwelcome  visit 
of  Drake's  was  extraordinarily  far-reaching.  No  longer 
could  the  loads  of  silver  be  carried  from  one  port  to  an- 
other in  safety  on  the  broad  bosom  of  the  Pacific.  In- 
stead of  this  convenient  transport,  the  ingots  had  to  be 
placed  on  the  backs  of  mules  and  llamas  and  be  painfully 
and  toilfuUy  carried  across  the  mountainous  country. 
And  all  along  the  coast  were  now  posted  points  of  ob- 
servation, with  the  bonfires  stacked  in  readiness  to  send 
up  their  warning  smoke. 

It  would  seem  a  curious  axiom  of  history  that,  the  fur- 
ther one  is  removed  by  time  from  a  famous  character, 
the  closer  are  the  glimpses  obtained  of  his  personality 
and  private  habits !  Each  separating  generation,  in  fact, 
seems  to  throw  back  a  longer  ladder  of  popular  knowledge 
than  the  last. 

It  is  only  quite  recently,  for  instance,  thanks  to  the  re- 
spective works  of  Lady  Elliott  Drake  and  Miss  Zelia 
Nuttall,  that  some  of  Drake's  more  intimate  touches  have 
been  placed  on  record.  To  those  who  have  looked  on  him 
merely  in  the  light  of  a  bluff  sailor  his  intimate  knowledge 
of  the  Spanish  tongue  will  come  as  rather  a  surprising 
revelation.  Curiously  enough,  too,  it  has  been  left  to  the 
recently  unearthed  testimony  of  some  of  his  Spanish 
prisoners  to  point  out  Drake 's  hobby  of  painting,  and  how 
he  and  his  young  cousin,  John  Drake,  would  amuse  them- 
selves for  hour  after  hour  by  painting  in  Sir  Francis' 
cabin. 

It  is  Miss  Zelia  Nuttall,  too,  who  has  pointed  out  a 
remarkable  proof  of  Drake 's  patriotic  ambition  and  keen 
judgment,  which  is  also,  by  the  way,  referred  to  in  Hak- 
luyt.  This  is  patent  on  a  map  corrected  by  him — a  map 
on  which  he  has  placed  a  northern  limit  to  Spanish  Mex- 
ico, and  on  which  the  words  *'Nova  Albio"  indicate  the 
very  territory  which  afterwards  became  the  southern 


THE  FIRST  ENGLISH  MARINERS  35 

part  of  the  British  colonies!  This  land  would  seem  to 
be  well  to  the  south  of  that  Nova  Albio  so  christened  by 
Drake  for  two  reasons :  *'  The  one  in  respect  of  the  white 
bankes  and  cliffes,  which  lie  towards  the  sea:  and  the 
other,  because  it  might  have  some  affinitie  with  our 
Countrey  in  name,  which  sometime  was  so  called."  To 
a  student  of  Drake  the  importance  of  this  discovery  is 
not  to  be  overestimated. 

''It  thus  appears,"  says  Miss  Nuttall,  "as  though  the 
present  occupation  of  the  North  American  continent  by 
the  Anglo-Saxon  race  is,  after  all,  but  a  realization  of 
what  may  be  called  Drake's  Dream." 

To  return  to  the  Pacific  and  to  the  cruise  of  the  Golden 
Hind:  there  is  a  lighter  side  to  the  most  weighty  adven- 
tures, and  not  all  the  incidents  were  epoch-making,  or 
even  dignified !  There  were  minor  episodes,  such  as  that 
which  occurred  one  day  when  a  party,  having  landed, 
found  a  Spaniard  fast  asleep  on  shore,  having  thirteen 
bars  of  silver  by  his  side.  "We  took  the  silver  and  left 
the  man, ' '  they  explained  joyfully.  They  would  certainly 
have  stormed  a  great  galleon  in  the  same  cheerful  mood. 
But  it  happened  to  be  very  easy  hunting  that  day,  and 
this  kind  of  thing  is  not  likely  to  go  down  to  history  as 
one  of  the  great  incidents  of  Drake's  life!  It  was  cer- 
tainly a  flea  bite  in  the  way  of  plunder  compared  with  the 
capture  of  the  great  Spanish  ship  Cacafuego,  which 
yielded  over  £200,000.  And  a  sovereign  in  those  days  had 
as  much  value  as  a  dozen  of  our  modern  ones. 

Incidentally,  there  were  others  besides  the  Spaniards 
who  suffered  in  pocket  from  Drake's  visit  to  these  shores. 
Here  for  instance  is  the  plaint  of  an  English  merchant, 
John  Chilton,  one  of  the  few  examples  of  that  period  who 
made  himself  at  home  among  the  Spaniards  in  Europe, 
and  was  permitted  to  sail  from  the  Peninsula  to  the  new 
world,  with  apparently  all  the  privileges  and  rights  to 
Vrode  that  were  possessed  by  any  native-born  Spaniard. 

Chilton  must  have  regarded  Drake 's  advent  with  mixed 


36       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

feelings,  for,  when  speaking  of  the  town  of  "Aguatulco" 
he  remarks:  "in  which  place  Sir  Francis  Drake  arrived 
in  the  yeere  1579,  in  the  moneth  of  April,  where  I  lost  with 
his  being  there  above  a  thousand  duckets,  which  he  tooke 
away. ' ' 

Drake  sailed  his  rich  ship  home  by  way  of  the  Molucca 
Islands,  Java,  and  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  dropping  an- 
chor at  Plymouth  on  the  26th  September,  1580,  after  a 
voyage  of  two  years  and  ten  months.  On  his  return  with 
enormous  treasure  Queen  Elizabeth  most  adroitly  man- 
aged to  keep  the  enraged  Spanish  ambassador  at  one 
arm's  length  while  she  extended  the  other  to  Drake. 

One  day  in  the  spring  of  the  following  year  the  Golden 
Hind,  decorated  and  burnished,  lay  at  Deptf  ord  to  receive 
her  gracious  and  virgin  Majesty  to  dinner.  When  the 
meats  had  been  eaten  and  the  wines  drunk,  and  when,  the 
music  having  been  enjoyed  and  the  laudatory  Latin  verses 
nailed  to  the  masts  had  been  admired,  Drake  bade  fare- 
well to  his  royal  mistress  no  longer  a  plain  master,  but 
a  knight. 

In  1585  Drake  set  out  for  the  Spanish  Main  again,  in 
command  this  time  of  a  most  formidable  fleet  of  twenty- 
five  vessels  manned  by  some  two  thousand  three  hundred 
men.  With  him  sailed  many  notable  men,  and  his  vice- 
admiral  was  no  less  a  personage  than  Martin  Frobisher. 
Perhaps  the  most  important  event  of  this  voyage  was  the 
capture  of  the  town  of  Cartagena,  which  was  eventually 
ransomed  by  the  Spaniards  for  the  sum  of  one  hundred 
and  ten  thousand  ducats. 

In  the  course  of  this  expedition  eight  captains  and  some 
seven  hundred  and  fifty  men  lost  their  lives,  either  from 
sickness  or  wounds ;  nevertheless  the  voyage  was  regarded 
as  a  successful  one,  and  when  the  fleet  arrived  at  Ports- 
mouth on  the  28th  of  July,  1586,  it  was  claimed  with 
justice  that  it  was  to  the  "no  small  honour  to  our  Prince, 
our  Country,  and  ourselves." 

It  was,  of  course,  inevitable  that  such  raids  should  have 


THE  FIRST  ENGLISH  MARINERS  37 

had  their  effect  on  the  morale  of  the  Spaniards,  and  the 
tension  of  the  period  is  revealed  in  a  letter  which 
Hieronima  de  Navares  wrote  from  Panama  in  1590  to  the 
Licenciate  Juan  Alonso  of  Valladolid.  In  this  he  remarks 
that :  "I  can  certifie  your  worship  of  no  newes,  but  only, 
that  all  this  countrey  is  in  such  extreme  feare  of  the 
Englishmen  our  enemies,  that  the  like  was  never  seene 
or  heard  of:  for  in  seeing  a  saile,  presently  here  are 
alarmes  in  all  the  countrey. ' ' 

Here  we  have  Drake  at  the  height  of  his  fame  and  suc- 
cess. Doubtless  many,  had  they  achieved  half  as  much 
as  he,  would  have  considered  their  life's  work  done,  and 
would  have  retired  to  the  enjoyment  of  the  soft  airs  of 
the  west  country  varied  by  an  occasional  trip  to  court. 
Not  so,  Drake !  The  call  of  the  Spanish  Main  was  in  his 
blood,  and  the  chastising  of  the  Spaniard  had  become  part 
of  his  creed.  It  was  his  fate  to  continue  upon  the  seas 
to  the  end,  and,  his  death  preceded  by  the  hangings  of 
cannon,  and  the  charges  of  his  forces  on  Spanish  soil,  to 
have  his  fever-worn  body  sink  beneath  the  limpid  blue 
swell  of  the  tropical  seas. 

Judging  by  its  strength,  this  last  expedition  in  which 
Drake,  accompanied  by  John  Hawkins,  took  part,  should 
have  excelled  all  the  previous  ones  in  results.  Twenty- 
one  ships  and  nearly  two  thousand  five  hundred  men 
sailed  under  these  famous  leaders  from  Plymouth  on  the 
28th  of  August,  1595.  But  the  expedition  was  ill  fated. 
Towns  were  captured  and  Spanish  forces  were  defeated 
in  the  West  Indies  and  on  the  Spanish  Main,  it  is  true. 
But  in  general  its  objects  were  frustrated,  and  a  landing 
force,  making  for  the  town  of  Panama,  was  assailed  on  all 
sides  in  the  woods,  and  was  obliged  to  retreat  with  great 
loss. 

Before  this,  fever  had  begun  to  work  its  will  on  the  men 
of  the  fleet.  Sir  John  Hawkins  was  one  of  the  first  of  the 
leaders  to  fall  a  victim  to  this.  His  anxiety  on  the  ac- 
count of  his  son,  a  prisoner  in  the  hands  of  the  Spaniards, 

b  O  i?  1  ^ 


38       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

had  sent  him  into  a  condition  of  depression  which  was 
deepened  by  the  news  of  the  capture  by  the  Spaniards 
of  the  Francis,  one  of  the  vessels  of  the  expedition — a 
misfortune  that  revealed  its  plans  to  the  Spaniards,  and 
thus  made  the  success  of  the  enterprise  almost  hopeless. 
His  vessel  had  just  cast  anchor  in  an  inlet  of  the  east 
coast  of  Puerto  Rico,  when  Hawkins  died. 

As  fate  would  have  it,  his  old  friend  Drake's  spirit 
was  within  an  ace  of  winging  its  way  to  the  spot  where 
the  souls  of  all  fine  sailors  go,  within  a  few  hours  of 
Hawkins'  passage  to  the  same  place.  As  he  sat  at  sup- 
per in  his  cabin  the  next  day  opposite  to  the  town  of 
Puerto  Rico  a  hea\y  shot  from  the  fort  on  shore  crashed 
in,  wounding  to  death  Sir  Nicholas  Clifford  and  Mr. 
Browne,  damaging  Captain  Stratford  and  one  or  two 
others,  and  actually  striking  the  stool  from  under  Drake 
himself,  without  causing  him  any  hurt! 

But  the  fever  was  less  merciful.  On  the  15th  of  Janu- 
ary, 1596,  Drake  was  stricken  down.  He  made  that  gal- 
lant fight  for  his  life  that  was  to  be  looked  for  in  such 
as  he,  and  an  hour  before  his  death  he  rose  and  attempted 
to  dress  himself.  On  the  28th  of  January  he  passed 
away,  and  w^as  solemnly  buried  at  sea  in  the  presence 
of  Sir  Thomas  Baskerville  and  all  his  captains. 

We  may  hark  back  for  a  short  time  to  some  lesser  men 
than  Drake,  and  to  a  voyage  which  was  marred  chiefly  on 
account  of  the  mutinous  conduct  of  those  who  partici- 
pated in  it.  Master  Andrew  Barker  of  Bristol  appears  to 
have  been  a  peculiarly  unfortunate  man.  In  1574  a 
cargo  of  goods  which  he  had  sent  to  Teneriffe  was  confis- 
cated at  the  instance  of  the  Inquisition.  In  order  to 
avenge  this  and  to  reimburse  himself,  Andrew  Barker 
fitted  out  two  barks — the  Ragged  Staff e,  of  which  he  him- 
self was  captain  and  Phillip  Roche,  master;  and  the 
Beare,  of  which  William  Coxe  of  Limehouse  was  captain 
and  master — and  with  these  he  set  out  for  the  Spanish 
colonies. 


THE  FIRST  ENGLISH  MARINERS  39 

From  the  moment  the  vessels  left  Plymouth  the  tone 
of  their  companies  seems  to  have  been  a  little  reckless, 
judging  from  the  conscious,  and  seemingly  unusual,  recti- 
tude betrayed  by  this  phrase :  "in  our  course  we  met  with 
a  ship  of  London,  and  afterwards  with  another  ship,  but 
tooke  nothing  from  either  of  them." 

Nevertheless,  after  they  had  visited  Trinidad,  where 
the  Indians  gave  them  "friendly  and  courteous  enter- 
tainment," they  found  legitimate  prey  in  a  Spanish 
frigate,  overhauled  near  Cartagena,  which  contained  some 
gold,  silver,  and  emeralds,  "whereof  one  very  great  being 
set  in  gold,  was  found  tied  secretly  about  the  thigh  of  a 
frier." 

It  may  have  been  the  sight  of  these  treasures  that  in- 
creased both  the  greed  and  the  mutinous  spirit  of  Andrew 
Barker 's  officers  and  men.  Judging  by  the  events  of  the 
voyage,  Andrew  Barker  could  have  possessed  few  of  the 
qualities  of  a  leader.  At  Veragua  his  relations  with  his 
master  had  grown  so  strained  that  they  landed  to  fight 
a  duel,  in  the  course  of  which  Barker  was  slightly 
wounded  in  the  cheek.  After  this,  when  off  the  island  of 
San  Francisco,  William  Coxe,  the  master  of  the  Beare, 
took  a  hand  in  the  general  insubordination.  Coming  on 
board  the  Ragged  Staff  e,  he  took  possession  of  the  ship 
and  its  treasure,  and  sent  Barker  ashore,  where  the  lat- 
ter fought  with  a  German  of  the  name  Weiborne,  both 
being  wounded. 

So  occupied  had  they  been  with  their  own  affairs  that 
these  turbulent  spirits  had  overlooked  the  possibility  of 
damage  at  the  hands  of  the  Spaniards.  They  were  re- 
minded of  this  by  a  sudden  attack  by  these  on  the  men 
ashore,  in  which  the  unfortunate  Andrew  Barker  and 
eight  of  his  men  were  killed. 

This  disaster  appears  to  have  sobered  William  Coxe 
for  a  while.  He  consented  to  receive  on  board  again 
those  of  the  English  who  survived  on  the  island,  and 
soothed  the  conscience  of  his  crew  by  dividing  among  them 


40       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

a  golden  chain  which  had  been  found  in  Andrew  Barker's 
cabin  after  his  death. 

But  ill  luck  dogged  the  expedition.  Raiding  boat 
parties  were  chased  by  Spanish  warships;  the  captured 
frigate  was  capsized  in  a  squall,  and  in  her  were  lost 
fourteen  lives  and  much  treasure,  while  shortly  after  this 
Philip  Roche  died.  The  remnants  of  the  party,  having 
divided  among  themselves  such  little  booty  as  remained, 
returned  furtively  to  England.  But  there  their  crimes 
were  brought  home  to  them,  and  John  Barker  of  Bristol, 
the  brother  of  the  dead  Andrew,  haled  them  before  the 
justices.  That  the  chief  malefactors  were  punished  by  a 
long  term  of  imprisonment  instead  of  death  w^ould  seem 
to  prove  that,  in  the  opinion  of  the  judges,  there  had  been 
faults  on  all  hands. 

The  morals  to  be  deducted  from  this  voyage  are  too 
abundant  and  patent  to  need  any  emphasis  here!  On 
this  occasion,  moreover,  the  spirit  of  poetic  justice  ap- 
pears to  have  been  peculiarly  thorough,  for,  although 
some  of  the  lesser  criminals  ''escaped  the  rigor  of  man's 
law,  yet  could  they  not  avoide  the  heavy  judgement  of 
God,  but  shortly  after  came  to  miserable  ends.  Which 
may  be  example  to  others  to  shew  themselves  faithfull 
and  obedient  in  all  honest  causes  to  their  Captaines  and 
Governors." 

Richard  Hawkins,  the  son  of  John,  and  therefore  of 
the  third  South  Sea  navigating  generation  of  the  Haw- 
kins, sailed  for  the  Spanish  Main  in  1593.  The  style 
in  which  he  describes  his  numerous  adventures  is  diffuse 
but  quaintly  gallant. 

He  tells  us  that  he  caused  to  be  constructed  in  the  river 
of  Thames  a  ship  of  between  three  and  four  hundred 
tons,  "pleasing  to  the  eye,  profitable  for  stowage,  good 
of  sayle  and  well  conditioned. ' ' 

There  was  a  considerable  to-do  about  the  naming  of 
this  ship.  The  Lady  Hawkins  (whom  Richard  Hawkins 
terms  his  mother-in-law  by  which  term  he  means,  I  take 


THE  FIRST  ENGLISH  MARINERS  41 

it,  his  stepmother)  craved  this  privilege.  But  the  name 
she  chose,  the  Repentance,  came  as  a  shock  to  Richard 
Hawkins.  He  considered  it  uncouth,  and  told  her  so.  In 
vain.  Lady  Hawkins  absolutely  refused  to  modify  her 
views  on  nomenclature.  All  the  satisfaction  that  he  ever 
obtained  from  her  was  her  expressed  conviction  that, 
**  repentance  was  the  safest  ship  we  could  sayle  in  to 
purchase  the  haven  of  Heaven." 

This  seems  to  have  consoled  Richard  Hawkins  to  a 
certain  extent,  for  he  remarks,  "Well  I  knew,  shee  was  no 
Prophetesse,  though  a  religious  and  most  vertuous  lady, 
and  of  a  very  good  understanding.  ..." 

At  the  same  time  Richard  Hawkins  has  much  to  say 
concerning  the  giving  of  these  names  of  celestial  char- 
acter. What  luck  did  the  Revenge  ever  have?  Had  she 
not  been  all  but  cast  upon  the  Irish  coast?  Had  she  not 
run  ashore  coming  into  Plymouth,  with  his  father.  Sir 
John,  aboard?  Had  she  not  all  but  sunk  of  a  leak  off  the 
coast  of  Spain,  turned  "topsie-turvie"  at  her  moorings 
in  the  river  of  Rochester,  and  suffered  other  catastrophes 
too  numerous  too  mention  ?  And  in  her  last  voyage,  when 
fifteen  hundred  Spaniards  and  three  Spanish  ships 
perished  about  her,  did  she  not  give  England  and  Spain 
just  cause  to  remember  her?  "What  English  died  in  her, 
many  living  are  witnesses:  Amongst  which  was  Sir 
Richard  Greenfield,  a  noble  and  valiant  gentleman,  Vice- 
Admirall  in  her  of  her  Majestic 's  Fleete,  so  that  well 
considered  she  was  even  a  ship  loaden  and  full  fraught 
with  ill  successe." 

So  much  for  the  Revenge.  But,  after  all,  the  Repent- 
ance was  not  destined  to  go  to  sea  under  so  ill-omened 
a  name.  As  she  lay  at  Deptford,  Queen  Elizabeth,  pass- 
ing down  the  river  in  her  barge,  caught  sight  of  her, 
and  commanded  her  men  to  pull  round  her.  The  Queen, 
'  *  viewing  her  from  Post  to  Stemme,  disliked  nothing  but 
her  Name,  and  said  that  shee  would  Christen  her  a-new." 

So  the  Repentance  fell  at  one  royal  swoop  from  her 


42       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

austere  pinnacle  to  the  opposite  and  light  and  airy  pole  of 
the  Daintie.  But  this  cheering  metamorphosis  worked  no 
good  in  the  long  run.  Once  in  South  American  waters, 
after  some  successful  cruising,  Hawkins  found  himself,  on 
a  June  day  in  1594,  surrounded  by  an  overwhelmingly 
superior  Spanish  fleet  under  Don  Beltran  de  Castro. 

Eichard  Hawkins  made  preparations  for  a  most  gallant 
defense,  which  lasted  three  days;  '*we  hayled  first  with 
our  noise  of  trumpets;  then  with  our  waytes,  and  after 
that  with  our  Artillerie. ' ' 

The  English  commander  has  a  very  great  deal  to  say 
concerning  the  lessons  that  should  be  learned  from  this 
fight — of  the  best  methods  of  employing  ships,  cannon, 
and  leaders;  of  Spanish  ideas  of  discipline  and  strategy; 
of  the  benefits  of  glistering"  armor  compared  with  over- 
indulgence in  the  alcoholic  cup,  and  of  the  foolishness  of 
mixing  gunpowder  with  wine.  He  does  not  appear  to 
have  been  over-sanguine  concerning  the  merits  of  wine 
itself,  a  rare  doubt  in  those  days,  for  he  complains :  ''Al- 
though I  had  a  great  preparation  of  Armours,  as  well  of 
proofe  as  of  light  Corseletes,  yet  not  a  man  would  use 
them ;  but  esteemed  a  pott  of  wine  a  better  defense  than  an 
Armour  of  proofe." 

But  no  armor  or  wine — whatever  their  respective  claims 
— could  hope  to  prevail  against  the  immense  superiority 
of  the  Spanish  forces.  The  time  came  when  the  Spanish 
proposals  of  terms  had  to  be  considered  seriously,  though 
not  until  they  had  been  frequently  rejected :  ''Came  wee 
into  the  South  Sea  to  put  out  flagges  of  truce  ? ' '  cries  Sir 
Richard  in  gallant  indignation.  "And  left  we  our  pleas- 
ant England  with  all  her  contentments  with  intention  and 
purpose  to  avail  ourselves  with  white  ragges  and  by  ban- 
ners of  peace  to  deliver  ourselves  for  slaves  into  our 
enemies'  ranks'?" 

But  what  would  you?  Torn  sails,  perished  masts,  rent 
pumps,  fourteen  shots  under  water,  eight  feet  of  water  in 
the  hold,  many  slain  men,  and  scarcely  a  whole  one  among 


THE  FIRST  ENGLISH  MARINERS  43 

those  that  survived — these  are  not  the  factors  with  which 
to  snatch  a  victory  against  overwhelming  odds.  Richard 
Hawkins,  himself  bleeding  from  six  wounds  ("  one  of  them 
in  the  necke  very  perillous")  found  himself  hesitating  be- 
tween two  alternatives.  In  his  hand  was  the  glove  sent 
to  him  as  a  guarantee  of  good  faith  by  Don  Beltran  de 
Castro;  in  his  memory  was  the  broken  Spanish  pledge 
from  which  his  father  had  suffered  at  San  Juan  de  UUoa. 

In  the  end  he  struck  his  colors,  the  only  alternative  left 
him  if  he  wished  to  preserve  a  man  of  his  crew  alive.  In 
this  instance  at  least  he  found  that  his  confidence  had  not 
been  misplaced.  When  the  Spaniards  came  aboard  it  was 
with  shouts  of  "Buena  Guerra!  Buena  Guerra!  Hoy 
por  mi,  manana  por  ti!"  which  may  be  translated  thus: 
* '  Honorable  Warfare !  Honorable  Warfare !  To-day  to 
me:  to-morrow  to  thee!" 

There  is  surely  a  most  pleasant  touch  of  true  chivalry 
in  this,  as  well  as  in  the  reception  with  which  Eichard 
Hawkins  met  at  the  hands  of  Don  Beltran  de  Castro.  For 
the  latter  nobleman  received  him  with  *' great  Courtessie 
and  compassion,  even  with  tears  in  his  eyes,  and  words 
of  great  consolation,"  and  ''commanded  mee  to  bee  ac- 
comodated in  his  own  cabbine  where  he  sought  to  cure 
and  comfort  mee  the  best  he  could,  the  like  he  used  with 
all  our  hurt  men,  sixe  and  thirtie  at  least." 

Presently,  at  their  leisure,  the  Spanish  and  the  English 
leader  appear  to  have  discussed  the  exact  definitions  of 
pirates,  corsairs,  and  legal  and  honorable  enemies.  Sir 
Richard  ''laboured  to  reforme  the  idea  that  the  Generall 
in  Peru  and  in  all  Spaine  held  (before  our  surrendry)  of 
English  Men-of-Warre  to  be  pirats  and  corsarios." 

In  this,  being  as  mighty  a  man  in  speech  as  in  war  (to 
say  nothing  of  some  outbreaks  into  what  in  a  less  gallant 
fellow  would  perilously  have  approached  verbosity)  he 
seems  to  have  succeeded.  And  then,  as  the  intimacy  of 
the  two  ripened,  Richard  Hawkins  abandoned  general- 
ities, and  broached  a  topic  of  considerable  personal  im- 


44       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

portance.  He  strongly  deprecated  the  custom  of  making 
officers  (frequently  needy)  pay  a  heavy  ransom,  and  ex- 
cusing the  common  soldiers  (frequently  better  off  than  the 
officers)  with  the  payment  of  some  mere  trifle. 

Considering  his  comparatively  tender  years,  there  is  no 
doubt  that  Sir  Richard  was  an  all-round  man,  and  no 
mean  hand  at  finance !  And  here  again  Don  Beltran  de 
Castro  reassured  him,  for  he  promised  him  that,  if  any 
ransom  at  all  were  exacted,  he  should  ask  no  more  than  a 
couple  of  greyhounds  for  himself,  and  another  couple  for 
his  brother. 

There  are  other  instances  of  Spanish  courtesy  in  vic- 
tory which  afford  equally  agreeable  reading.  But  the  oc- 
casions were  frequent  enough  when  the  Iberian  mariners, 
even  if  they  would,  had  no  opportunity  of  displaying  any 
magnanimity  of  the  kind!  Apart  from  any  qualities  of 
seamanship,  it  was  only  to  be  expected  that  victory  should 
rest  most  often  with  the  bold  and  predatory  sea-dogs  who, 
fully  prepared,  swept  down  like  hawks  across  the  blue 
waters,  and  disappeared  again  beneath  the  shimmering 
horizon  like  the  greyhounds  coveted  by  Don  Beltran  de 
Castro. 

One  of  the  bitterest  pills  that  the  Empire  of  Spain  had 
to  swallow  was  the  fact  that  at  its  mightiest  it  could  not 
always  prevent  its  great  galleons  from  suffering  capture 
practically  at  the  end  of  their  voyage.  This  occurred 
with  an  irritating  frequency  at  the  hands  of  even  the 
Barbary  pirates,  who,  athirst  to  avenge  their  fathers'  and 
forefathers'  expulsion  from  Spain,  would  boldly  sally  out 
from  time  to  time,  and  would  strain  the  bleeding  backs 
of  their  galley-slaves  at  the  oars  to  board,  almost  within 
sight  of  its  port,  many  a  treasure  ship  that  had  toilfuUy 
sailed  its  voyage  from  Puerto  Bello  or  Mexico. 

It  was  not  only  in  American  waters,  moreover,  that  the 
English  made  their  prizes.  Many  a  one  of  these  was 
snapped  up  off  the  Spanish  coast  itself,  and  occasionally 
even  an  outward  vessel  proved  to  be  laden  with  a  more 


THE  FIRST  ENGLISH  MARINERS  45 

valuable  cargo  than  might  reasonably  have  been  expected 
by  the  fortunate  captor.  Of  this  kind  were  the  two  ships 
captured  in  1592  by  Master  Thomas  White  in  the  Amity 
of  London  on  his  homeward  voyage  from  Barbary,  after 
an  action  in  which  the  Amity's  crew  of  more  than  forty- 
two  men  and  a  boy  used  their  guns  with  such  accuracy 
upon  the  enemy  that  they  ''slew  divers  of  their  men;  so 
that  we  might  see  the  blood  run  out  at  the  scupper  holes. ' ' 
Hakluyt  gives  the  following  account  of  their  contents: 
''These  two  rich  prizes  were  laden  with  1400  chests  of 
quicksilver  with  the  armes  of  Castile  and  Leon  fastened 
upon  them,  and  with  a  great  quantity  of  bulles  of  in- 
dulgences. .  .  .  The  loss  in  money  to  the  King  of  Spain 
from  the  capture  of  these  bulles  was  (in  hard  cash)  two 
millions  and  72  thousand  for  living  and  dead  persons  for 
the  provinces  of  Nova  Hispania,  lucatan,  Guatimala,  the 
Honduras,  and  the  Phillipinas,  taxed  at  two  reals  the 
piece.  And  more  for  eighteene  thousand  bulles  taxed  at 
foure  reals,  amounteth  all  to  107,700  pounds." 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  BEGINNINGS   OF  BRITISH  TRADE  WITH   SOUTH   AMERICA 

Trade  between  England  and  the  Early  Portuguese  settlements  in  Brazil — 
Friendly  relations  at  Santos — A  burial  incident — Liberal  spirit  dis- 
played by  the  clergy — John  Whitall — The  first  English  resident  in  San- 
tos— His  letter  to  his  friends  in  London — Matters  of  business  and  mar- 
riage— Instructions  concerning  the  first  consignment  of  goods — How 
local  difficulties  of  pronunciation  were  overcome — Arrival  of  the  Min- 
ion with  merchandise,  and  a  present  for  Whitall — Edward  Fenton's 
voyage — He  is  accompanied  by  John  Drake,  a  young  cousin  of  Sir 
Francis — Tidings  of  a  great  Spanish  fleet  in  the  Straits  of  Magellan 
alter  the  plans  of  the  expedition — Richard  Carter,  an  Englishman, 
found  on  board  a  captured  ship — Fenton  sails  to  Santos — He  is  visited 
by  the  inhabitants  of  the  port,  including  Whitall — Entertainments  and 
negotiations — Appearance  on  the  scene  of  three  Spanish  vessels,  who  en- 
gage Fenton's  squadron — Victory  of  the  English — Fenton's  irresolution 
— Suspicions  concerning  him — End  of  the  English  peaceful  relations 
with  Brazil,  now  under  Spanish  rule — Fate  of  John  Drake — Curious 
circumstances  concerning  a  man  of  his  name  in  an  auto-da-f6  of  1650 — 
Robert  Withrington's  expedition — English  and  Irish  on  board  the  cap- 
tured ships — Some  curious  circumstances  of  the  voyage — Trading  ven- 
tures— Edward  Cotton's  instructions  to  his  shipmaster — Disastrous  voy- 
age of  the  Delight — Sufferings  in  the  Straits  of  Magellan  and  on  the 
Brazilian  coast — A  tragic  home-coming — Thomas  Cavendish — His  voy- 
age round  the  world — Aspect  of  the  ruined  Spanish  settlement  in  the 
Straits  of  Magellan — Cavendish's  methods  compared  with  those  of 
Drake — His  second  voyage — Mismanagement  of  the  attack  on  Santos — 
A  town  empty  of  booty — Misfortunes  of  the  expedition — Death  of  Cav- 
endish— Adventures  of  the  Desire — Privations  of  the  crew — An  able 
captain — Sufferings  in  the  Magellan  Straits — Disease,  death,  and  hos- 
tile attack  on  the  Brazilian  coast — Result  of  the  decay  of  many  thou- 
sands of  dried  penguins — How  the  Desire  was  brought  to  the  coast  of 
Ireland — James  Lancaster — How  his  previous  residence  in  Portugal  as- 
sisted him  in  his  voyage  to  Brazil — His  squadron  joins  company  with 
that  of  Captain  Venner — Capture  of  Recife  and  Olinda — Lancaster  ob- 
tains the  assistance  of  Dutch  and  French  vessels — Methods  by  which  he 
avoided  a  discussion  with  the  Portuguese — Conclusion  of  a  successful 
voyage — Sir  Walter  Raleigh — His  navigation  of  the  Orinoco — The 
legend  of  El  Dorado — Effects  of  the  landscape  and  of  the  Spaniard 
Berreo's    theories   upon    a   poetic    imagination — Raleigh's    impressions 

46 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  BRITISH  TRADE         47 

given  in  his  oAvn  words — Some  questions  of  credulity  and  practical  fact 
— Captains  Amyas  Preston,  George  Summers,  Keymis,  Berrie,  and 
Leigh — Robert  Harcourt's  settlement — Raleigh's  last  voyage — He  falls  a 
victim  to  his  sovereign's  feeble  policy. 

UNTIL  in  1580  the  Portuguese  Empire  fell  under 
the  domination  of  Spain,  the  ancient  friendship 
in  Europe  between  the  English  and  Portuguese 
gave  to  the  English  navigators  the  comparative  freedom 
of  the  Brazilian  seas.  About  1540  a  considerable  trade 
sprang  up  between  Southampton  and  Brazil,  and — as  we 
have  already  seen — in  1542  an  Englishman  of  the  name 
of  Pudsey  is  said  actually  to  have  constructed  a  fort — 
and,  presumably,  to  have  founded  a  trading  post — in  the 
neighborhood  of  Bahia. 

Just  before  the  temporary  extinction  of  the  Portuguese 
rule  the  relations  between  the  English  and  their  old  allies 
appear  to  have  been  particularly  cordial.  This  was  most 
of  all  evident  at  Santos  in  the  south  of  the  great  colony, 
where,  on  the  news  of  a  probable  attack  by  the  French  on 
the  port,  the  English  traders  who  found  themselves  there 
at  the  time  hastened  to  lend  their  cannon  to  the  local 
authorities  for  the  purpose  of  defense. 

Indeed,  we  have  one  picture  of  this  period  which  shines 
out,  a  little  dimly,  like  a  star,  solitary  and  threatened,  in 
the  path  of  black  and  sullen  clouds.  The  thing  arose  from 
the  kindly  but  unorthodox  procedure  of  the  Santos  clergy. 
The  English  traders  and  sailors  had  apparently  become 
accustomed  to  worship  at  the  Santos  church,  and,  on  the 
death  of  one  of  them,  he  was  actually  buried  in  that 
Roman  Catholic  building. 

When  the  news  of  this  reached  the  ears  of  the  high 
clerical  dignitaries  of  the  colony,  they,  scandalized,  sent 
peremptory  orders  that  no  heretic,  living  or  dead,  was  to 
be  allowed  to  enter  the  sacred  edifice.  The  priests  of 
Santos,  having  no  choice,  bowed  their  heads  in  submission. 
But  when  they  gave  the  message  to  the  English  they  soft- 
ened its  harshness  by  every  means  in  their  power,  and 


48       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

begged  the  visitors  to  believe  in  their  own  chagrin  and 
to  think  as  well  of  them  as  they  could. 

One  of  the  chief — and  probably  the  first — of  these  Eng- 
lish traders  in  Santos  was  John  Whithall  who  sent  home  a 
most  interesting  letter,  written  on  the  26th  of  June,  1578. 
He  begins  by  explaining  that  he  had  intended  proceeding 
to  Europe,  but : 

''It  is  in  this  countrey  offered  mee  to  marry,  and  to 
take  my  choice  of  three  or  f oure,  so  that  I  am  about  three 
dayes  agoe  consorted  with  an  Italian  gentleman  to  marry 
with  his  daughter  within  these  foure  days.'* 

There  are  people  known  as  matchmakers,  but  it  was 
John  Whithall  who  was  made  by  this  match !  In  a  mer- 
cenary outburst  which  is  largely  redeemed  by  its  frank- 
ness he  confides  to  his  friend  the  worldly  gains  which  he 
is  about  to  obtain  from  his  prospective  father-in-law.  He 
does  not  say  whether  these  come  within  the  category  of 
additional  advantages  to  the  marriage  or  in  that  of  com- 
pensations, since  not  one  syllable  is  devoted  to  the  ap- 
pearance or  character  of  the  lady !  But  the  catalogue  of 
what  he  is  about  to  receive  is  detailed,  including  a  sugar 
factory  "that  doth  make  every  yeare  a  thousand  roves 
of  sugar, ' '  and  the  management  of  another  such  establish- 
ment in  addition. 

''This  my  marriage,"  chuckles  John  Whithall,  "will 
be  worth  to  mee  two  thousand  duckets,  little  more  or 
lesse."  He  is,  at  all  events,  an  honest  and  open  rejoicer, 
although  he  has  still  to  prove  his  merits  as  a  husband. 
He  ends  up  this  first  portion  of  his  letter  in  a  burst  of 
thankfulness : 

"I  give  my  living  Lord  thanks  for  placing  me  in  such 
honour  and  plentifulness  of  all  things."  Undoubtedly 
his  joy  was  at  its  height  just  then,  and  John  Whithall 
must  have  dreamed  many  golden  dreams  as  he  strolled 
by  the  banks  of  his  broad  river,  where  the  purple  and 
white  flowering  trees  rose  at  the  back  of  the  mangroves. 
We  may  wonder  what  became  of  him  when  a  few  years 


OLD   FORT   AT   MOUTH   OF    SANTOS  EI\  i;k,    URA/II 


Tllii    SAMUS    KUER    IN    BRAZIL 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  BRITISH  TRADE         49 

later  the  spot  was  overwhelmed  by  the  arrogant  and 
bigoted  Spanish  soldiers  and  priests ! 

Fortunately  for  his  peace  of  mind,  he  foresaw  noth- 
ing of  that.  He  was  wholly  taken  up  with  his  own 
promising  plans:  **My  father-in-law  and  I  shal  (God 
willing)  make  a  good  quantitie  of  sugar  every  yeere, 
which  sugar  we  intend  to  ship  for  London  from  hence- 
forth, if  we  can  get  such  a  trustie  and  good  friend  as  you 
to  deale  with  us  in  this  matter." 

All  that  glittered  before  Whithall  as  he  wrote  his  very 
long  letter  to  his  friend  Richard  Staper  was  a  golden 
commercial  future.  Even  at  that  moment  his  acute 
trader's  brain  had  grasped  an  opportunity.  Would  his 
friend  send  him  out  a  ship — a  vessel  of  some  sixty  or 
seventy  tons?  This  argosy,  you  see,  which  was  to  sail 
from  Europe  to  Brazil,  was  not  to  be  much  larger  than 
a  modern  fishing  smack! — laden  with  ''these  parcels  of 
commodities  or  wares,  as  followeth." 

Now  these  wares  are  just  of  the  nature  that  a  new 
colony  might  be  expected  to  desire.  They  included 
cloths,  gowns,  hollands,  fustians,  silks,  flannels,  cottons, 
frieze,  shirts,  hats,  doublets,  girdles,  knives,  Venice 
glasses,  axes,  soap,  nails  and  fishhooks.  Also  there  was 
to  be  wine  from  the  Canaries,  and  ''sixe  dozen  of  Cor- 
dovan skinnes  of  these  colours,  to  wit,  orenge,  tawnie, 
yellow,  red,  and  very  fine  black." 

John  Whithall  then  points  out  that :  "To  cause  a  ship 
to  come  hither  with  such  commodities  as  would  serve  this 
countrey,  would  come  to  great  gaines,"  more  especially 
if  the  proceeds  be  invested  in  a  cargo  of  the  local  sugar 
to  freight  the  vessel  back.  It  may,  of  course,  be  merely 
a  coincidence  that  this  advice  should  have  been  tendered 
just  as  the  fortunate  John  Whithall  was  on  the  eve  of 
acquiring  a  sugar  factory!  But  in  any  case  he  reveals 
himself  a  shrewd  fellow. 

"This  voyage  is  as  good  as  any  Peru  voyage," 
promises  John  Whithall,   and  he  was  probably  right. 


50       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

Then  he  makes  an  offer,  and  it  will  be  seen  that  the  size 
of  the  suggested  ship  has  swollen  just  a  little  in  the 
course  of  his  long  letter:  *'If  you  and  Master  Osborne 
will  deale  here,  I  will  deale  with  you  before  any  other, 
because  of  our  old  friendly  friendship  in  time  past" — 
perhaps  it  is  to  his  credit  that  he  shows  himself  far  more 
sentimentally  inclined  towards  past  comrades  than 
towards  future  wives.  ''If  you  have  any  stomake 
thereto,  in  the  name  of  God,  do  you  espie  out  a  fine  barke 
of  seventie  or  eightie  tunnes,  and  send  her  hither  with 
a  Portugal  pilot  to  this  port  of  S.  Vincent  in  Brazil, 
bordering  upon  the  borders  of  Peru. ' ' 

Finally  Whithall  strikes  a  light  on  the  difficulties  of 
pronunciation  which  his  name  has  involved,  and  on  the 
triumphant  compromise  which  has  been  effected : 

"Here  in  this  countrey  in  stead  of  John  Whitehall  they 
have  called  me  John  Leitoan ;  so  that  they  have  used  this 
name  so  long  time,  that  at  this  present  there  is  no  rem- 
edie,  but  it  must  remaine  so.  When  you  write  unto  me, 
let  the  superscription  be  unto  John  Leitoan." 

In  whatever  manner  it  may  have  been  pronounced, 
John  Whithall 's  name  was  clearly  sound  and  respected 
for  commercial  purposes,  for  in  response  to  his  appeal 
the  Minion,  laden  with  the  specified  goods,  set  sail  from 
London,  sighted  the  mountains  guarding  the  northern 
bank  of  the  Santos  River,  swung  round  into  the  stream, 
and  came  to  an  anchor  near  the  palm-covered  hill  on  the 
top  of  which  stood  Santos  church.  She  bore  a  letter  to 
Whithall  from  his  merchant  friends  of  London,  explain- 
ing that  the  great  credit  they  attach  to  his  promises 
has  caused  them  "to  joyne  ourselves  in  company  together, 
and  to  be  at  great  charges  purposely  to  send  this  good 
ship  the  Minion  of  London,  not  onely  with  such  marchan- 
dizes  as  you  wrote  for,  but  also  with  as  many  other  things 
as  we  thought  might  any  wayes  pleasure  you,  or  profit 
the  country." 

Toward  the  end  of  the  long  letter  comes  the  news  of 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  BRITISH  TRADE         51 

a  little  personal  present  to  Whithall  himself:  ''And  in 
the  meane  time  for  a  token  of  our  good  willes  toward 
you,  we  have  sent  you  a  fieldbed  of  walnut  tree,  with  the 
canopy,  valens,  curtaines,  and  gilt  knobs." 

That  the  Minion  was  cordially  received — not  only  by 
John  Whithall,  but  by  the  officials  and  all  the  people — 
we  know,  and  it  is  probable  enough  that  the  "deales" 
fully  justified  John  Whithall's  appeal. 

But  this  was  the  end  of  those  friendly  relations — or, 
if  you  prefer  it,  the  death  of  the  first  promise  of  dawn, 
which  the  Spanish  conquest  of  Portugal  was  to  bring  to 
nothing. 

Edward  Fenton's  expedition  to  South  America  cannot 
be  ranked  as  one  of  the  triumphs  of  the  early  mariners. 
Its  original  destination  was  China;  but  it  achieved 
neither  that  object,  nor  anything  else  of  importance, 
chiefly  owing  to  bad  leadership  and  to  differences  be- 
tween the  various  commanders. 

Fenton's  fleet  consisted  of  the  Leicester,  of  four  hun- 
dred tons ;  the  Bonaventure,  three  hundred  tons ;  the 
Elizabeth,  fifty  tons,  and  the  Francis,  a  bark  of  forty 
tons,  the  property  of  Sir  Francis  Drake,  and  commanded 
by  his  young  cousin  John  Drake.  This  latter  was  a  most 
promising  lad  of  some  twenty  years  of  age,  who,  as  we 
have  already  seen,  had  accompanied  his  illustrious  rela- 
tive on  his  voyage  round  the  world.  It  was  the  boy  John 
Drake,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  who  had  won  the  gold  chain 
offered  by  Sir  Francis  as  a  prize  to  him  who  should  first 
sight  the  treasure  ship  Cacafuego. 

The  services  of  John  Drake,  as  well  as  the  boatswain 
Thomas  Blackaller  and  the  shipmaster  Thomas  Gult, 
were  lent  by  Sir  Francis  Drake  to  Fenton,  as  that  mortal 
of  hesitating  tendencies  does  not  appear  to  have  had  any 
practical  knowledge  of  the  sea. 

After  a  visit  to  the  west  coast  of  Africa  it  was  de- 
termined to  set  sail  for  Brazil,  "and  so  to  appoint  our 
course  from  time  to  time,  if  wee  lost  companie,  to  stay 


52       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

fifteene  dayes  in  the  River  of  Plate,  and  from  thence  to 
go  for  the  streights,  and  there  to  ride,  and  water,  and 
trimrae  our  ships." 

When  off  the  South  American  coast,  however,  the  ex- 
pedition captured  a  Spanish  vessel,  from  which  they 
gleaned  some  disturbing  intelligence.  A  powerful  Span- 
ish fleet,  of  twenty-three  ships  and  3,500  men  under  Diego 
Flores  de  Valdez,  it  appeared,  had  sailed  down  to  the 
Straits  of  Magellan,  and  was  lying  there  in  wait  for  any 
squadron  which  might  attempt  the  passage. 

On  board  of  the  captured  vessel,  it  may  be  remarked, 
were  a  number  of  friars,  and  an  Englishman,  named 
Richard  Carter,  who  for  the  last  twelve  years  had  been 
dwelling  at  the  town  of  Asuncion  on  the  banks  of  the 
Paraguay  River,  a  thousand  miles  from  the  coast.  When 
the  other  prisoners  were  released.  Carter,  as  well  as  a 
certain  Juan  Pinto  who  knew  the  mouth  of  the  Rio  de  la 
Plata,  were  retained,  doubtless  on  account  of  their 
knowledge  of  the  local  topography. 

On  receiving  the  news  of  the  hostile  occupation  of  the 
Magellan  Straits,  Fenton  had  declared  that  he  would  pass 
through  them  in  spite  of  the  Spanish  fleet.  Presently 
his  resolution  wavered,  and  he  summoned  a  council  of 
war  of  his  captains.  How  ill-assorted  these  latter  were 
may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that  'Hheir  opinions  were 
as  divers  as  their  names ;  and  as  much  differed,  as  before 
this  time  they  were  wont  usually  to  doe :  onely  they  all 
agreed  in  this  one  point,  that  it  was  impossible  for  us 
to  passe  the  streights  without  seeing,  and  incountring 
with  the  ships." 

From  subsequent  events  we  may  feel  positive  that  John 
Drake  was  not  one  of  those  who  advocated  the  timorous 
counsel  which  in  the  end  prevailed.  After  the  captains 
had  supped  in  company  Fenton  announced  to  them  that 
he  had  temporarily  abandoned  the  plan  of  passing 
through   the    straits.     The    question   now   was    merely 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  BRITISH  TRADE  53 

whether  they  should  revictual  on  the  banks  of  the  Rio 
de  la  Plata  or  at  the  Brazilian  port  of  Santos. 

This  was  soon  settled.  The  Spanish  prisoners  had  ad- 
mitted that  food  existed  on  the  banks  of  the  great  river, 
but  they  had  added  that  there  was  no  wine  available  there. 
This  was  certainly  true,  as  the  Indian-harried  settlement 
of  Buenos  Aires,  founded  for  the  second  time  scarcely 
two  years  before,  was  still  in  the  throes  of  want  and  hard- 
ship. As  at  that  time  the  importance  of  wine  in  the  pro- 
vision list  of  a  vessel  was  scarcely  second  in  importance 
to  that  of  solid  food,  this  condition  of  affairs  did  not 
appeal  to  Fenton,  who  sailed  along  the  coast  until  he 
opened  up  that  spot  in  the  forest-covered  mountains,  in 
the  midst  of  which  spread  the  alluvial  valley  of  the  San- 
tos River.  So  Diego  Flores  de  Valdez'  great  fleet  waited 
in  vain  in  the  Straits  of  Magellan,  and  the  history  of  the 
suffering  and  disasters  incurred  in  the  attempt  to  form 
defensive  settlements  in  those  bleak  and  remote  channels 
is  one  of  the  most  tragic  that  the  Spanish  colonies  have 
to  show. 

Soon  after  Fenton 's  vessels  had  dropped  anchor  in  the 
stream  at  a  point  some  distance  below  the  town,  the  com- 
mander was  visited  by  Giuseppe  Doria,  WhithalPs 
wealthy  and  respected  father-in-law,  and  some  others. 
There  was  a  good  deal  of  doubt  ashore,  it  appeared,  con- 
cerning Fenton 's  intentions.  The  efforts  on  the  part  of 
the  seamen  to  dissipate  this  were  sufficient,  as  is  testi- 
fied to  by  Captain  Luke  Ward,  of  the  Bonaventure: 

*' After  many  speeches  and  requests  a  banket  was  made 
them,  and  the  generall  in  his  pinnesse  with  his  musicke, 
and  trumpets;  and  I  in  my  skiffe  with  trumpets,  drum 
and  fife,  and  tabor  and  pipe,  accompanied  them  a  mile 
up  the  river :  at  going  off,  we  saluted  them  with  a  volley 
of  three  great  pieces  out  of  each  ship." 

In  these  days  we  may  have  lacked  elbow  room,  creature 
comforts,  and  ventilation;  but  we  had  it  within  us  to 


54       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

make  a  brave  show  when  the  time  for  ceremony  ar- 
rived ! 

This  visit  was  productive  of  friendly  sentiments.  On 
the  next  day  Whithall  himself  came  on  board.  For  all 
the  enthusiastic  shrewdness  of  his  trading  instincts,  he 
does  not  seem  to  have  hesitated  for  a  single  moment  when 
the  call  of  loyalty  clashed  with  his  pecuniary  interests. 
Whithall  came  now  with  a  word  of  warning.  The 
shadow  of  the  Spanish  Empire  lay  over  the  spot,  and 
its  influence  had  already  been  working.  The  Portuguese 
were  restless  and  uneasy.  In  proof  of  the  probability 
that  their  natural  instincts  of  hospitality  would  give  way 
to  the  harsh  demands  of  Spain,  they  had  sent  away  their 
women  folk,  and  were  hurriedly  fortifying  the  town. 
Why  not,  he  urged,  sail  up  and  anchor  before  the  town, 
and  thus  take  the  delicate  situation  more  directly  under 
control  ? 

Then  Whithall  took  his  departure  over  the  side,  and 
was  doubtless  paddled  away  in  one  of  those  dug-out 
canoes  such  as  still  survive  in  the  river.  Very  shortly 
afterwards  Doria  came  floating  down  the  stream  again, 
accompanied  by  a  Portuguese.  They  brought  further 
pacific  messages,  but  advised  the  postponement  of  any 
important  steps  until  the  governor  had  spoken  with  Mas- 
ter Fenton,  which  he  would  do  in  a  few  days. 

Fenton  thanked  his  visitors,  begged  them  to  partake 
of  his  hospitality,  and  then,  while  they  were  busied  in 
dining,  he  mounted  to  the  deck  to  discuss  the  situation 
with  his  officers.  Fenton — arguing  that  a  wealthy  mer- 
chant in  hand  was  worth  a  dozen  governors  in  the  bush 
— was  inclined  to  detain  his  guests  indefinitely  in  the  light 
of  hostages.  But,  as  usual,  he  was  loth  to  do  anything 
— even  the  wrong  thing !  — without  discussion  and  hesi- 
tation. 

His  second-in-command.  Ward,  deprecated  anything  of 
the  kind.  He  reminded  Fenton  that  their  instructions 
forbade  violence  except  in  self-defense,  and  pointed  out 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  BRITISH  TRADE         55 

the  irretrievable  damage  that  such  a  procedure  would 
cause  to  the  budding  trade  which  the  Minion  had  opened 
up  with  Santos.  This  pacific  counsel  prevailed,  and  the 
outcome  of  it  was  that,  instead  of  detention,  the  visitors 
received  some  fine  black  cloth,  and — in  order  that  social 
distinctions  might  be  preserved — the  same  quantity  for 
the  governor,  but  this  in  scarlet  and  murrey! 

But  the  days  of  peaceful  trading  had  gone  by.  Southey 
— not  quite  fairly,  I  think, — charges  the  fault  of  their 
disappearance  to  Drake  rather  than  to  the  grim  and  im- 
mutable policy  of  Spain.     He  says : 

''But  the  evil  which  Ward  anticipated  from  hostile  pro- 
ceedings had  already  been  produced  by  Drake ;  our  nation 
was  hated,  and  by  all  the  Spaniards  in  America,  English- 
men were  considered  as  pirates." 

However  this  may  have  been,  there  was  no  uncertainty 
about  the  masts  and  yards  of  three  Spanish  ships,  which 
one  day  pricked  up  plainly  above  the  low  trees  of  the 
alluvial  valley,  separated  from  the  English  vessels  by 
only  a  few  windings  of  the  tortuous  river. 

The  Spanish  squadron  came  on  to  the  attack,  and,  as 
a  brilliant  moon  was  shining,  a  night  action  ensued  in 
the  river,  in  the  course  of  which  one  of  the  Spanish  ves- 
sels sank  to  the  muddy  bottom  of  the  stream.  In  the 
end  the  squadron  to  which  it  had  belonged,  defeated, 
made  its  way  with  difficulty  up  the  river.  Fenton  did 
not  trouble  himself  about  pursuit.  He  shook  the  water 
of  'the  river  from  his  sterns,  and  sailed  homewards, 
having  achieved  very  little  beyond  a  certain  loss  of  repu- 
tation. 

Decidedly  the  victor  of  this  river  fight,  he  appears  to 
have  behaved  with  the  most  exemplary  humanity,  and  to 
have  contented  himself  with  vigorously  repelling  the  as- 
sault on  him.  Iberian  historians  themselves  freely  admit 
that  Fenton  might  have  inflicted  much  more  severe  dam- 
age on  the  Spaniards,  had  he  been  so  minded.  Lopez 
Vaz,  a  Portuguese,  gives  the  following  account: 


56      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

**The  Englishmen  easily  put  them  to  the  worst,  and 
sunke  one  of  them,  and  might  have  sunke  another,  if  the 
Englishmen  would:  but  they  minded  not  the  destruction 
of  any  man:  for  that  is  the  greatest  vertue  that  can  be 
in  a  man,  that  when  hee  may  doe  hurt,  yet  he  will  not  doe 
it.  So  the  Englishmen  ....  went  backe  for  England, 
without  doing  of  any  harme  in  the  countrey." 

Such  generous  praise  from  an  opponent  would  read  still 
more  pleasantly  were  Fenton's  motives  perfectly  clear. 
But  the  reason  of  many  of  this  leader's  actions  is 
shrouded  in  mystery.  Undoubtedly  his  procedure  was 
often  half-hearted,  and  in  more  than  one  quarter  he  was 
suspected  of  carrying  on  negotiations  with  the  Spanish 
ambassador  in  London. 

This  action,  although  insignificant  in  itself,  was  a  mo- 
mentous one,  since  it  signaled  the  termination  of  the 
English  peaceful  relations  with  Brazil.  The  whole  of 
South  America  was  now  under  Spanish  domination,  and 
throughout  the  entire  length  of  its  coasts  the  English 
might  know  well  enough  that  not  a  port  existed  that 
would  not  throw  a  round  shot  or  two — even  were  the 
cannon  old  and  rusted — at  any  vessel  flying  the  St. 
George's  Cross  which  should  chance  to  come  within 
range. 

The  free  intercourse  between  the  English  and  the  Port- 
uguese was  not  destined  to  be  renewed  until  some  two 
centuries  and  a  quarter  later,  when  a  British  fleet  es- 
corted a  Portuguese  regent  and  his  court  to  their  new 
capital  of  Rio  de  Janeiro.  For  when  in  1640  the  Portu- 
guese flung  off  the  Spanish  yoke,  the  Government  of 
Brazil  continued  to  be  tainted  with  methods  which, 
though  less  harsh,  savored  of  the  Spanish  model,  and  the 
advent  of  the  foreigner  was  hindered  as  much  as  possible. 

One  tragic  episode,  however,  has  yet  to  be  related  con- 
cerning Fenton's  expedition.  Young  John  Drake,  mind- 
ful no  doubt  of  his  great  kinsman's  deeds,  had  no -mind 
to  abandon  the  voyage  to  the  South  Seas.     So  he  sepa- 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  BRITISH  TRADE         57 

rated  his  forty-ton  cockleshell  from  Fenton's  squadron, 
and  sailed  it  gallantly  on  to  the  south,  he  and  his  crew 
of  seventeen  men  and  a  boy !  Alas !  off  the  River  Plate 
the  Francis  struck  a  rock,  and  was  wrecked,  and  after 
conflicts  with  the  Indians  and  captivity,  John  Drake  and 
two  companions  found  themselves  at  Buenos  Aires. 

They  were  kindly  received,  and  would  probably  have 
been  sent  back  to  their  own  country,  had  not  a  former 
prisoner  of  Francis  Drake's  appeared  on  the  scene  and 
recognized  the  admiral's  young  cousin. 

John  Drake  was  taken  to  Lima,  after  a  long  stay  at 
Asuncion  on  the  way.  He  appears  eventually  to  have 
adopted  the  Roman  Catholic  faith  and  to  have  married; 
but  he  was  never  permitted  to  leave  the  neighborhood 
of  Lima. 

It  is  supposed  that  John  Drake  and  his  two  companions 
were  the  sole  survivors  of  the  unfortunate  Francis;  but 
it  is  possible  that  there  remained  some  who  did  not  suc- 
ceed in  escaping  from  the  hands  of  the  Indians.  Hakluyt, 
for  one,  was  led  to  believe  this,  for  he  remarks : 

''Upon  this  comming  of  the  Englishmen,  there  were 
prepared  50  horsemen  to  goe  over  the  river  to  seeke  the 
rest  of  the  Englishmen,  and  also  certaine  Spaniards  that 
were  among  the  savage  people,  but  I  am  not  certaine, 
whether  they  went  forward  or  not. ' ' 

Zelia  Nuttall  in  her  very  valuable  work  for  the  Hakluyt 
Society,  "New  Light  on  Drake,"  has  an  interesting  note 
in  connection  with  John  Drake: 

''In  the  official  description  of  the  auto-da-fe  held  in 
December,  1650,  in  the  Church  of  Santo  Domingo  at 
Cartagena,  the  capital  of  the  Spanish  Main,  the  name  of 
John  Drake  is  given  as  that  of  one  of  the  penitents.  He 
had  been  denounced  to  the  Dominican  fathers  because 
'being  a  Lutheran,  he  frequented  the  Holy  Sacraments.' 
After  performing  public  penance  in  the  auto-da-fe,  he  was 
'absolved  with  a  caution'  and  admitted  to  reconciliation 
with  the  Church  of  Rome.    In  1650  John  Drake,  the 


58       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

cousin  of  Francis  Drake,  would  have  been  an  octogenar- 
ian, a  fact  which  might  explain  the  otherwise  unaccount- 
able leniency  of  the  sentence  imposed  for  so  grave  a 
sacrilege  ....  Whatever  the  truth  may  be,  it  is  a  fact 
which  cannot  but  awaken  deep  interest,  that  sixty-five 
years  after  Drake's  cousin  figured  in  an  auto-da-fe  at 
Lima,  a  Lutheran  namesake  of  his  was  living  on  the 
Spanish  Main,  the  scene  of  many  an  English  raid,  whither 
ships  sailed  regularly  from  Lima,  transporting  the  gold 
and  silver  destined  for  Spain.  There,  if  anywhere  in 
America,  at  that  time,  there  was  a  remote  chance  of  liber- 
ation or  escape  and  this  may  account  for  the  fact  that  in 
1652  'an  English  tailor,  named  Anthony'  also  lived  at 
Cartagena." 

After  Fenton's  return  an  expedition  set  out  for  the 
South  Seas  by  way  of  the  Brazils,  no  longer  bearing  an 
olive  branch  at  the  main.  The  squadron,  financed  by  the 
Earl  of  Cumberland,  was  commanded  by  Robert  With- 
rington,  and  was  accompanied  by  two  privateers,  one  of 
which  had  been  fitted  out  by  Raleigh. 

Setting  out  in  1586,  when  well  to  the  south  of  the 
line,  Withrington  stood  in  toward  the  shore,  and  where 
the  blue  of  the  Southern  Pacific  was  becoming  tinged 
with  the  thick  yellow  flood  of  the  River  Plate  he  captured 
two  small  Portuguese  vessels. 

Curiously  enough,  the  first  of  these  ships  was  com- 
manded by  a  certain  Abraham  Cocke,  who  had  originally 
been  one  of  the  members  of  the  Minion's  crew.  This 
tends  to  show  that  the  last  spark  of  international  genial- 
ity had  not  yet  been  stamped  out  by  the  Spaniards,  and, 
morever,  reveals  the  remarkable  manner  in  which  the 
threads  of  each  of  these  English  expeditions  happened 
to  be  picked  up  by  the  next. 

In  the  second  of  the  captured  vessels  were  three  or 
four  friars,  an  Irishman  among  them,  and,  if  only  the 
date  corresponded  more  closely,  one  would  have  made 
certain  that  this  could  have  been  no  other  than  the  Jesuit 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  BRITISH  TRADE         59 

Father  Fields,  whose  adventures  when  captured  by 
English  '^pirates"  are  described  in  a  later  chapter. 

Cocke  assured  his  compatriots  that,  if  they  would  turn 
their  bows  northwards,  they  could  raid  Bahia  with  suc- 
cess. Withrington  took  his  advice,  but  obtained  no  booty 
to  speak  of  at  that  tropical  port,  in  spite  of  much  fierce 
fighting  the  town  itself  being  strenuously  guarded  by 
great  numbers  of  the  Jesuit  Mission  Indians,  who  had 
been  hastily  summoned  for  that  purpose. 

It  IS  worthy  of  remark  that  on  this  voyage  a  landing 
party  at  Seal  Island  (probably  Lobos  Island)  found  there 
the  arms  of  Portugal  engraved  on  a  rock.  These,  it  was 
imagined,  had  been  placed  there  by  the  order  of  Martin 
Alonso  de  Souza. 

This  last  voyage  makes  no  mention  of  John  Whithall, 
and  it  is  possible  that  the  intercourse  between  him  and 
his  fellow  countrymen  was  broken  off  after  it.  If  he 
remained  there,  no  doubt  his  descendants  inhabit  the 
neighborhood  at  the  present  day,  and  if  any  people  of 
the  name  of  Leitoan  or  Leitoa  exist  there  now,  they 
may  congratulate  themselves  on  a  distinctly  interesting 
ancestry ! 

It  is  not  a  little  curious  to  find  that  in  the  actual  heyday 
of  the  raids  of  the  great  English  navigators  there  were 
other  sailors  who  were  occupied  in  commonplace  trading 
with  the  colonists.  Yet  this  is  clear  enough  from  the 
instructions  given  by  Master  Edward  Cotton  of  South- 
ampton to  the  commander  of  a  ship  of  his  freighted  in 
1590  for  Brazil  and  the  Kiver  Plate. 

Needless  to  say,  the  traffic  had  to  be  carried  on  very 
quietly,  and  the  palms  of  the  Spanish  officials  well 
smoothed  with  gold.  Among  the  commodities  required 
for  the  return  trip  were  ''amber,  sugar,  green  ginger, 
cotton-wool,  and  some  quantity  of  the  peppers  of  the 
country  there.  Also  for  parats  and  monkies,  and  the 
beast  called  serrabosa." 

The  crew,  morever,  were  to  drag  for  oysters,  and  the 


60       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

master  was  to  keep  a  sharp  lookout  for  the  seeds  and 
kernels  of  strange  plants,  ''also  to  doe  your  best  en- 
deavour to  try  for  the  best  ore  or  golde,  silver,  or  other 
rich  mettals  whatsoever." 

Unfortunately  for  the  high  hopes  of  Edward  Cotton, 
his  vessel  was  cast  away  on  the  shore  of  Guinea,  only 
one  man  out  of  the  ship's  company  returning  to  tell  the 
tale. 

In  1589,  the  Bristol  ship  Delight  set  out  from  Plymouth 
on  a  voyage  to  the  Magellan  Straits  and  the  Southern 
Chilean  Province  of  Arauco,  which  caused  her  name  to 
appear  most  grimly  ironical.  For  the  first  part  of  the 
journey  she  was  accompanied  by  two  other  vessels,  the 
Wild  Man  and  the  White  Lion,  as  well  as  by  two  small 
pinnaces.  But  in  the  neighborhood  of  Cape  Blanco  on 
the  Barbary  coast  she  lost  sight  of  her  consorts,  and  did 
not  get  into  touch  with  them  again. 

The  Delight  stood  on  for  the  South  American  coast, 
and  eventually  reached  the  Magellan  Straits  in  safety, 
although  by  the  time  she  had  made  the  mountainous  and 
wooded  inlets,  disease  had  carried  off  sixteen  persons  out 
of  their  complement  of  ninety  one. 

The  voyage  of  the  Delight  deserves  to  be  better  known. 
It  provides  unsurpassable  material  for  an  epic  of  mis- 
fortune. Having  waited  in  the  vain  hope  of  being  joined 
by  the  remaining  vessels  of  the  expedition,  she  proceeded 
to  Penguin  Island  and  her  crew  captured  and  salted  a 
number  of  penguins,  ''which  must  be  eaten  with  speed, 
for  wee  found  them  to  be  of  no  long  continuance."  In 
the  course  of  this  work  of  provisioning  a  serious  accident 
occurred;  for  their  boat  was  blown  away  in  a  sudden 
gale,  and  was  never  seen  again.  This  catastrophe  cost 
them  the  lives  of  fifteen  men,  and  left  them  without  a 
boat.  However,  a  substitute  was  improvised  out  of  the 
wood  of  the  men's  chests,  and  the  Delight  made  her  way 
along  the  Straits  as  far  as  Port  Famine.  Here,  near 
the  ruins  of  the  Spanish  settlement  which  it  had  been 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  BRITISH  TRADE         61 

attempted  to  found  in  1582,  they  met  with,  and  succored, 
a  solitary  Spaniard,  the  only  one  remaining  at  the  spot 
out  of  the  original  four  hundred,  who  was  leading  a  her- 
mit and  precarious  existence. 

About  this  time,  attracted  by  the  signals  of  some  In- 
dians on  shore,  the  Delight's  new  boat  was  sent  to  the 
beach.  No  sooner  had  the  men  landed  than  they  w^ere 
set  on  by  the  treacherous  natives,  and  out  of  a  crew  of 
nine  only  two  returned  alive  to  their  ship.  To  cut  short 
a  long  story  of  disaster,  a  six  weeks'  sojourn  in  these 
fatal  straits  cost  the  lives  of  thirty-eight  men,  whether 
from  casualties  or  disease. 

Nothing  remained  but  for  the  Delight  to  attempt  to 
make  her  way  home  as  best  she  could.  No  grain  of  good 
fortune  relieved  the  gloom  of  the  return  voyage.  Once, 
an  eighty-ton  Portuguese  vessel  was  sighted,  from  which, 
it  was  hoped,  some  food  might  be  obtained.  But  the 
Portuguese  master  ran  his  ship  ashore,  and  there,  for 
want  of  a  proper  boat,  the  Delight  had  to  leave  her ! 

Infested  by  disease,  the  stricken  vessel  staggered  on 
to  the  north,  and  when  foul  weather  at  length  drove  her 
mournful  ribs  on  to  the  rocks  of  Normandy  only  six  of 
her  crew  remained  alive ! 

When  we  come  to  Cavendish  we  arrive  at  one  of  the 
few  of  the  most  prominent  early  navigators  who  was  not 
a  Devonian.  Thomas  Cavendish  was  a  fairly  wild  Suf- 
folk lad,  of  good  family  and  easy  circumstances.  Or- 
phaned when  a  minor,  he  took  the  first  opportunity  of 
squandering  his  patrimony  with  that  impetuousity  which 
characterized  his  actions  throughout  his  life. 

In  1585  a  voyage  with  Sir  Eichard  Greenville  to  Vir- 
ginia gave  him  his  taste  for  the  sea.  On  his  return  he 
employed  the  remains  of  his  fortune  to  equip  a  small 
fleet  of  three  vessels.  This  he  took  to  Sierra  Leone  in 
1586,  whence  he  sailed  to  South  America.  When  off  the 
coast  of  Brazil  he  endeavored  to  get  into  communication 
with  John  Whithall  of  Santos,  but  failed.     After  this. 


62       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

he  proceeded  to  the  south,  and  passed  through  the  Magel- 
lan Straits.  Here  they  saw  the  ruins  of  the  settlement 
which  the  Spaniards  had  endeavored  to  establish  there: 
*'the  citie  had  foure  Fortes,  and  every  Fort  had  in  it 
one  cast  piece,  which  pieces  were  buryed  in  the  ground, 
the  carriages  were  standing  in  their  places  unburied: 
we  digged  for  them  and  had  them  all."  The  inhabitants, 
attacked  by  starvation  and  Indians,  had  ''dyed  like 
dogges  in  their  houses,  and  in  their  clothes,  wherein  we 
found  them  still  at  our  coming,  untill  that  in  the  ende 
the  towne  being  wonderfully  taynted  with  the  smell  and 
the  savour  of  the  dead  people,  the  rest  which  remained 
alive  were  driven  ....  to  forsake  the  towne." 

Such  was  a  portion  of  the  tragedy  of  Port  Famine. 
After  this  Cavendish  sailed  up  the  Pacific  coast,  then, 
drawing  away  to  the  westward,  he  sailed  home  in  the 
track  of  Drake,  being  the  second  Englishman  to  circum- 
navigate the  world. 

England  and  Spain  being  at  this  period  openly  at  war, 
Cavendish  had  at  least  the  advantage  of  carrying  on  his 
vastly  extensive  plundering  with  a  completely  easy  mind. 
His  spoil  was  immense,  one  captured  vessel  alone  being 
found  to  be  laden  with  the  equivalent  of  £49,000  in  gold. 
But,  for  all  that  he  was  a  bold  and  daring  mariner,  in 
some  respects  Cavendish  fell  far  from  the  standard  set 
by  Drake.  Drake,  it  is  true,  had  once  ducked  an  obsti- 
nate prisoner,  a  sufficiently  mild  chastisement,  but  Caven- 
dish did  not  hesitate  at  actual  torture,  relying  on  the 
thumbscrew  to  break  the  silence  of  more  than  one  Span- 
ish captive.  His  bravery  was  of  the  kind  which  his  fel- 
low leaders  of  the  age  rightly  claimed  for  the  English; 
but  his  methods  were  such  as — with  far  less  reason — 
have  been  held,  in  the  British  mind,  for  centuries  as  the 
special  characteristics  of  the  Spaniard ! 

Surely  something  of  his  spirit  struts  out  in  these  words 
of  his,  trumpeting  his  first  voyage : 

"In  which  voyage  I  have  either  discovered  or  brought 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  BRITISH  TRADE         63 

certaine  intelligence  of  all  the  rich  places  of  the  world 
that  were  ever  knowen  or  discovered  by  any  Christian. 
I  navigated  alongst  the  coast  of  Chili,  Pern,  and  Nueva 
Espana,  where  I  made  great  spoiles:  I  burnt  and  sunke 
nineteen  sailes  of  ships  small  and  great.  All  the  villages 
and  townes  that  ever  I  landed  at  I  burnt  and  spoiled." 

Cavendish  seems  to  have  been  determined  that  his  re- 
turn from  so  successful  a  voyage  should  lose  nothing 
in  the  way  of  crude  splendor.  So,  when  his  bows  at 
length  clove  their  way  into  English  waters,  they  were, 
it  is  said,  gilt  and  shining;  his  sails  were  of  variously 
colored  damask,  and  his  topmasts  were  covered  with 
cloth-of-gold.  As  a  finishing  touch — probably  not  with- 
out its  own  humor — his  grim  sea-dogs  are  said  to  have 
lounged  against  this  gorgeous  back-ground,  themselves 
resplendent  in  the  bravest  of  silks. 

Cavendish's  second  voyage  is  chiefly  remarkable  for 
the  unusual  amount  of  attention  paid  to  the  coast  of 
Brazil.  In  1591  two  of  his  ships  surprised  the  town  of 
Santos,  and  captured  practically  the  entire  population 
who  happened  to  be  at  mass.  This  in  itself  was  some- 
thing of  a  haul,  since  wealthy  settlers  were  often  worth 
their  weight  in  silver  for  a  ransom.  But  Cocke,  Caven- 
dish's second  in  command,  who  had  charge  of  the  affair, 
found  the  good  cheer  of  Santos  too  much  for  his 
astuteness.  While  he  feasted  and  drank,  the  inhabitants 
packed  up  their  valuables  very  stealthily,  and,  laden  with 
these,  slipped  away  into  the  forest,  making  their  way 
toward  the  highlands  of  the  interior. 

So  that  when,  rather  more  than  a  week  later.  Cavendish 
arrived  at  Santos,  he  found  Cocke — who  doubtless  re- 
ceived him  sheepishly — safely  in  possession  of  Santos — 
but  Santos  without  its  inhabitants,  valuables,  or  pro- 
visions. In  their  anger,  the  sailors  took  a  clay  image 
of  St.  Catherine  from  a  small  chapel,  and  flung  it  into 
the  river.  Later,  it  was  recovered  by  a  dragnet — either 
by  accident  or  design — and  was  found  to  be  completely 


64.       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

covered  with  those  little  oyster-shells  such  as  are  to  be 
seen  on  the  sea-walls  of  Santos  to-day.  These  were  suf- 
fered to  remain,  and  by  its  immersion  the  image  became 
vested  vnth  a  double  sanctity.  After  this  the  disgusted 
crews  burned  the  neighboring  village  of  Sao  Vicente, 
and  made  off  to  the  south  to  navigate  the  Magellan 
Straits.  But  the  good  fortune  which  had  attended  Cav- 
endish on  his  first  voyage  failed  him  now.  His  fleet 
was  driven  and  scattered  by  the  overwhelming  storms  of ' 
the  bleak  southern  latitudes.  Doubtless  soured  by  these 
misfortunes,  Cavendish  appears  to  have  fallen  foul  of 
his  officers  and  crew,  who,  however,  remained  loyal  to 
him. 

Once  more  Cavendish's  storm-battered  ship,  alone  on 
the  waters  now,  sailed  with  a  sick  and  starving  crew  to 
the  mouth  of  the  Santos  River.  But  misfortune  clung 
like  a  hungry  shark  to  the  weather-beaten  quarter  of 
Cavendish's  vessel.  Of  twenty-five  men,  landed  at  a  dis- 
tance of  some  three  leagues  from  Santos  in  order  to 
obtain  provisions,  not  a  soul  returned  to  the  vessel.  They 
were  attacked  by  a  band  of  Indians  who  on  the  previous 
occasion  had  shown  themselves  friendly,  and  all  but  two 
were  slain.  The  unfortunate  survivors  were  escorted 
into  Santos  by  the  Indians,  who  triumphantly  waved  in 
the  air  the  twenty-three  severed  heads  of  the  prisoners' 
slain  comrades. 

Cavendish  left  the  place,  and,  cruising  along  the  coast, 
was  soon  joined  by  the  Roebuck,  one  of  the  vessels  of  his 
squadron  which  had  lived  through  the  southern  storms. 
They  sailed  northwards  in  company,  raiding  where  they 
could,  until  they  came  to  Espiritu  Santo. 

Here  they  determined  on  a  more  important  landing 
expedition.  The  bar,  however,  of  the  small  river  which 
ran  by  the  place  presented  some  problems.  Moved  by  a 
fatal  inspiration,  one  of  Cavendish's  Portuguese  prison- 
ers volunteered  to  pilot  the  vessels  in.  Cavendish, 
doubting  the  possibility  of  this,  sent  a  boat's  crew  to 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  BRITISH  TRADE         65 

sound.  They  pulled  back,  to  report  an  insufficient  depth 
of  water  to  permit  the  passage  of  the  bar. 

The  unfortunate  Portuguese  protested  that,  whatever 
soundings  they  made  it,  he  had  safely  taken  in  vessels 
of  a  hundred  tons.  But  his  protestations  fell  on  deaf 
ears.  Cavendish  hanged  him  forthwith,  having  first  cyni- 
cally explained  to  the  poor  wretch  that  he  deserved  hang- 
ing in  either  case — whether  for  piloting  his  country's 
enemies,  or  for  attempting  to  wreck  an  English  vessel ! 

But  this  was  one  of  the  last  outbursts  of  Cavendish's 
peculiarly  grim  species  of  humor.  A  boat-expedition, 
sent  up  the  river,  was,  notwithstanding  much  individual 
gallantry,  forced  to  return  after  having  suffered  very 
hea\^  loss.  Much  of  the  fault  of  this  Cavendish  at- 
tributed to  the  master  of  the  Roebuck,  whom  he  dubbed 
a  most  cowardly  villain.  Then  he  set  sail  for  England, 
realizing  that  the  expedition  had  failed  in  all  things,  a 
circumstance  which  undoubtedly  contributed  to  his  end 
a  little  later.  For,  like  his  greater  fellow  na^dgato^s, 
Drake  and  Hawkins,  Cavendish  died  in  the  tropics  with 
the  oak  timbers  of  his  vessel  beneath  him. 

In  connection  with  this  expedition  occurred  a  voyage 
which,  from  the  point  of  view  of  tragedy,  may  well  com- 
pare with  that  of  the  Delight.  After  Cavendish's  fleet 
had  left  the  Straits  of  Magellan,  and  was  beating  its  way 
up  through  the  stormy  latitudes  toward  Brazil,  the  Desire 
lost  company  with  the  other  vessels.  After  a  time  her 
captain,  John  Davis,  decided  to  return  to  the  Straits 
of  Magellan.  The  Desire  even  attained  the  length  of 
entering  the  Pacific,  but  was  beaten  back  by  weather  to 
the  grim  shelter  of  the  land  waters. 

In  the  course  of  a  desperate  and  precarious  existence 
here,  a  portion  of  the  crew  became  suspicious  of  the 
captain's  motives,  and  planned  to  murder  him — a  silver 
bullet  had  already  been  prepared  that  would  leave  no 
doubt  about  his  end !  But  that  fine  sailor,  Captain  Davis, 
learning  of  this  in  time,  convinced  the  malcontents  of  his 


66       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

sincerity,  and  read  them  some  well-earned  lectures  on 
their  conduct  in  addition. 

This  episode  affords  merely  one  more  proof  that  if 
ever  there  was  a  spot  designed  to  bring  to  a  head  an 
incipient  mutinous  spirit,  it  was  these  very  Magellan 
Straits.  The  more  one  reads  of  their  history,  the  clearer 
it  becomes  that  they  were  the  earthly  hell  of  sixteenth, 
seventeenth,  and  eighteenth  century  mariners! 

In  the  first  instance  the  unfortunate  men  of  the  Desire 
had  been  obliged  to  subsist  largely  on  mussels ;  but  after- 
wards their  diet  improved : 

''All  the  time  that  wee  were  in  this  place,  we  fared 
passing  well  with  egs,  Penguins,  young  seales,  young 
Guiles,  besides  other  birds  ....  we  found  an  herbe 
called  Scurvygrasse,  which  we  fried  with  egs,  using  traine 
oyle  in  stead  of  butter.  This  herbe  did  so  purge 
ye  blood,  that  it  tooke  away  all  kind  of  swellings,  of 
which  many  died,  and  restored  us  to  perfect  health  of 
body." 

With  this  more  favorable  outlook,  died  away  the  in- 
cipient growlings  of  a  mutiny  to  which  the  sufferings  of 
the  men  had  inclined  to  drive  them. 

In  these  circumstances  it  was  decided  to  return,  and  to 
make  for  Brazil.  It  was  with  a  woefully  diminished 
crew  that  the  weatherbeaten  Desire  drove  her  nose  dog- 
gedly into  the  waters  of  the  Atlantic  again.  In  her  hold 
were  fourteen  thousand  dried  penguins,  the  fruit  of  in- 
finite toil  and  labor  in  the  bleak  straits. 

Thus  provisioned,  the  ship's  company  of  the  Desire  may 
well  have  thought  that  they  had  left  most  of  their  troubles 
behind  them,  however  shaken  might  be  the  hull  of  their 
vessel  and  however  rotten  its  sails.  But  when  they 
passed  from  the  chilly  southern  latitudes  to  the  brilliant 
glow  of  the  subtropics  the  taste  of  penguin,  eked  out  by 
nothing  beyond  a  few  precious  spoonfuls  of  oil,  meal, 
and  pease,  became  more  and  more  difficult  to  bear,  more 
especially  now  that  the  allowance  of  water  was  short. 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  BRITISH  TRADE  67 

When  off  the  Brazilian  Island  of  Placentia,  matters 
had  become  desperate.  The  Desire  was  brought  to  an 
anchor,  while  a  party  was  sent  ashore  to  collect  cassava 
roots,  near  an  apparently  deserted  settlement.  This 
work  they  performed  for  several  days,  when,  on  the  night 
of  the  fifth  of  February,  ''many  of  our  men  in  the  ship 
dreamed  of  murther  and  slaughter:  in  the  morning  they 
reported  their  dreams,  one  saying  to  another;  this  night 
I  dreamt,  that  thou  wert  slaine;  another  answered,  and 
I  dreamed,  that  thou  wert  slaine:  and  this  was  general 
through  the  ship." 

Treating  this  phenomenon  w^ith  some  respect,  the  cap- 
tain commanded  those  who  w^ere  about  to  proceed  on 
shore  to  arm  themselves  well,  and  to  keep  a  sharp  watch. 
Nevertheless,  the  tropical  languor  of  the  after-dinner 
hour  on  shore  proved  too  much  for  the  caution  of  the 
men,  and  they  were  sleeping  in  the  shade  of  the  palms 
and  the  brilliant  flowers,  when  they  were  surprised  by  a 
force  of  Portuguese  and  Indians,  and  of  fifteen  men  all 
but  two  were  slain.  The  Desire's  boat  was  pulled  in  hot 
haste  to  the  spot,  but,  save  for  the  two  survivors,  they 
found  their  comrades  already  dead,  and  "laide  naked  on  a 
ranke  one  by  another,  with  their  faces  upward,  and  a 
crosse  set  by  them." 

The  Englishmen  had  not  leisure  to  do  any  more  than 
take  in  this  melancholy  sight;  for  two  large  pinnaces, 
crowded  with  armed  men,  were  approaching,  and  it  was 
high  time  for  the  mauled  and  maltreated  Desire  to  leave 
this  unhealthy  neighborhood. 

AVhen  her  tattered  and  soiled  sails  were  spread  to  the 
joyously  mocking  and  brilliant  airs  only  twenty-seven 
gaunt  men  remained  to  work  the  vessel.  As  they  drew 
near  the  Equator  some  welcome  showers  renewed  the 
water  in  their  cask.  But  this  was  nothing  but  an  ironical 
caress  of  the  merciless  fortune  which  obsessed  the  poor 
vessel.  The  equatorialsun  and  the  malignant  spirits  of 
the  slain  penguins  entered  into  a  gruesome  treaty  to  deal 


68       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

the  most  dreadful  blow  of  all.  Wliat  happened  is  best 
told  in  the  homely  words  of  the  sufferers  themselves. 

"After  we  came  neere  unto  the  sun,  our  dried 
Penguins  began  to  corrupt,  and  there  bred  in  them  a  most 
lothsome  and  ugly  worme  of  an  inch  long.  This  worme 
did  so  mightily  increase,  and  devoure  our  victuals,  that 
there  was  in  reason  no  hope  how  we  should  avoide  famine, 
but  be  devoured  of  these  wicked  creatures:  there  was 
nothing  that  they  did  not  devour,  only  yron  excepted: 
our  clothes,  boots,  shooes,  hats,  shirts,  stockings:  and 
for  the  ship  they  did  so  eat  the  timbers,  as  that  we 
greatly  feared  they  would  undoe  us,  by  gnawing  through 
the  ship's  side  ....  the  more  we  laboured  to  kill  them, 
the  more  they  increased;  so  that  at  the  last  we  could  not 
sleepe  for  them,  but  they  would  eate  our  flesh,  and  bite 
like  Mosquotos." 

Presently  these  unfortunate  beings  fell  into  a  disease 
which,  beginning  in  the  ankles,  caused  their  w^hole  bodies 
to  swell  in  a  monstrous  fashion.  Undoubtedly  it  was  a 
nightmare  of  a  voyage,  this!  No  wonder  that  "divers 
grew  raging  mad,  and  some  died  in  most  lothsome  and 
furious  paine."  Through  it  all  the  captain's  spirit  seems 
to  have  remained  undaunted,  and  of  the  five  who,  at  the 
end  of  the  voyage,  were  able  to  move  about  the  deck,  he 
and  a  boy  were  the  only  two  who  remained  in  health. 
Beyond  these  were  eleven  prostrate  invalids,  all  that  re- 
mained out  of  the  original  ship 's  company  of  seventy-six 
men. 

Even  when  within  sight  of  home  the  survivors  were 
destined  to  experience  more  sordidness — this  time  in 
human  nature: 

"Thus  as  lost  wanderers  upon  the  sea,  the  11  of  June 
1593,  it  pleased  God  that  we  arrived  at  Bear-haven  in 
Ireland,  and  there  ran  the  ship  on  shore :  where  the  Irish 
men  helped  us  to  take  in  our  sails,  and  to  more  our  ship 
for  floating:  which  slender  paines  of  theirs  cost  the  cap- 
taine  some  ten  pounds  before  he  could  have  the  ship  in 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  BRITISH  TRADE  69 

safetie.  Thus  without  victuals,  sails,  men,  or  any  furni- 
ture God  only  guided  us  into  Ireland. ' ' 

A  few  days  later  this  staunch  captain  and  some  of  his 
men  landed  at  Padstow  in  Cornwall,  "and  in  this  manner 
our  small  remnant  by  God's  only  Mercie  were  preserved, 
and  restored  to  our  country,  to  whom  be  all  honour 
and  glory  world  without  end."  A  ringing  sentence, 
which  calls  for  an  amen  from  across  the  centuries ! 

In  James  Lancaster,  described  as  a  gentleman  of  Lon- 
don, we  have  a  type  of  man  entirely  different  to  that 
of  his  navigating  predecessors.  For  one  thing,  Lan- 
caster's education  had  been  cosmopolitan  by  compari- 
son. ''He  had  by  his  own  account  been  brought  up 
among  the  Portuguese,  lived  among  them  as  a  gentle- 
man, served  with  them  as  a  soldier,  and  dwelt  among 
them  as  a  merchant,"  says  Southey  and,  adds,  as  one 
whose  residence  in  Portugal  had  imbued  him  with 
friendly  feelings  toward  that  kindly  folk:  ''There  was 
therefore  what  may  be  called  moral  treason  in  bearing 
arms  against  a  people  with  whom  he  had  so  long  been 
domesticated." 

Although  it  is  impossible  to  judge  of  the  rights  and 
wrongs  of  these  circumstances  at  this  length  of  time,  it 
seems  possible  enough  that  Southey 's  complaint  was  not 
without  some  foundation.  Undoubtedly  Lancaster  was 
a  many-sided  man.  His  education  had  been  unusually 
liberal  for  that  period.  In  addition  to  his  notable  quali- 
ties as  a  navigator  and  a  resolute  leader  of  men,  he  was 
worldy  wise,  an  able  linguist,  a  shrewd  business  man, 
and,  morever,  endowed  with  a  remarkable  mental  agil- 
ity. 

It  has  always  seemed  to  me — although  it  is  sufficiently 
probable  that  some  quite  simple  circumstances  of  which 
I  am  ignorant  may  account  for  his  name  and  his  pres- 
ence in  the  Peninsula — that,  in  view  of  the  close  con- 
nection of  the  Lancastrian  dynasty  with  Portugal,  the 
origin  of  this  Lancaster  might  prove  interesting.     On 


70       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

the  other  hand,  mere  coincidence  of  nomenclature — 
although  in  this  instance  very  long-armed,  considering 
the  few  English  in  Portugal — may  well  deprive  his  an- 
cestry of  any  mystic  glamour. 

Lancaster  may  be  said  to  have  specialized  in  attacks 
on  Brazil!  The  motive  of  this,  naturally,  was  his  long 
acquaintance  with  the  Portuguese  people  and  language, 
two  circumstances  which  stood  him  in  good  stead. 

Lancaster  set  out  on  his  principal  voyage  in  1594  with 
three  ships — of  which  the  largest  was  some  two  hundred 
and  forty  tons  and  the  smallest  sixty — victualed  by  alder- 
men and  citizens  of  London.  His  fleet  was  manned  by 
two  hundred  and  seventy-five  men  and  boys.  His  des- 
tination was  Eecife,  the  sister  port  of  Olinda,  both  of 
which  are  now  popularly  known  as  Pernambuco.  An 
eloquent  testimony  to  Lancaster's  foresight,  thorough 
methods,  and  cosmopolitan  relations  was  his  procuring 
from  Dieppe  before  he  started  two  Frenchmen  conversant 
with  the  language  of  the  Indians  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Eecife ! 

On  the  southward  voyage  Lancaster  had  an  opportu- 
nity of  displaying  his  resolution;  for  trouble  with  the 
mast  of  one  of  his  ships  caused  a  separation  of  his  squad- 
ron, to  the  discouragement  of  many  of  the  men,  who  de- 
sired to  abandon  the  enterprise.  But  Lancaster  kept  a 
firm  hand  over  his  crew,  and  was  rewarded  by  the  coming 
together  again  of  his  three  vessels  off  the  sandy  north- 
west African  coast  in  the  neighborhood  of  Cape  Blanco. 

Master  Barker,  Lancaster's  second  in  command,  had 
already  busied  himself  among  the  Spanish  and  Portu- 
guese shipping,  and  from  a  prisoner  from  one  of  the  many 
captured  vessels  he  had  learned  that  a  richly  laden  car- 
rack  from  India  had  been  wrecked  off  the  northern  Bra- 
zilian coast,  and  that  all  her  cargo  had  been  taken  to 
Eecife. 

This,  fitting  in  so  admirably  with  the  objects  of  the 
expedition,  must  have  seemed  the  work  of  a  special  prov- 


'    THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  BRITISH  TRADE  71 

idence.  Greatly  encouraged  by  the  news,  the  squadron, 
accompanied  now  by  five  of  the  prizes,  set  sail  for  the 
southwest.  Presently  it  fell  in  with  a  squadron  of  four 
privateers  commanded  by  Captain  Venner.  An  agree- 
ment was  arrived  at  with  these,  and  Lancaster  found  his 
fleet  strengthened  by  two  ships,  a  pinnace,  and  a 
Biscayan  prize.  As  to  the  division  of  the  spoils  to  come, 
Lancaster  was  to  have  three  shares  and  Venner  the 
fourth — a  proportion  that  may  have  been  just  enough, 
but  that  it  was  in  any  case  eloquent  of  the  comparative 
intellectual  force  of  the  pair. 

After  this  the  combined  squadrons  made  for  Recife, 
and  arrived  off  that  port  in  the  darkness  of  night.  When 
the  sun  rose  out  of  the  warm  ocean  it  showed  the  mari- 
ners all  that  they  had  expected  to  see — the  low  forest- 
covered  hills,  the  green  stretches  of  the  sugar-cane 
fields,  the  groves  of  cocoanut  palms,  the  lowly  houses 
of  the  town,  and  the  sheltering  coral-reef  that  extended 
itself  in  front. 

But  there  was  more  than  this.  Just  where  the  end 
of  the  coral  reef  made  the  limit  of  the  natural  harbor 
three  large  Dutch  ships  lay  at  anchor.  The  sight  was 
as  unwelcome  as  it  was  unexpected,  since  there  was  noth- 
ing to  show  what  attitude  the  Dutch  would  adopt.  Lan- 
caster therefore  made  all  preparations  to  assail  the  town 
and  the  Dutch  as  well.  His  answer  to  a  somewhat  super- 
fluous question  sent  out  by  the  governor  as  to  what  the 
English  fleet  desired,  was  perfectly  direct.  Lancaster 
explained  in  so  many  words  that  it  was  for  the  goods 
of  the  carrack  he  had  come,  and  the  goods  of  the  carrack 
he  must  have. 

Then  he  sent  his  boats'  crew  ashore  to  the  attack. 
To  his  infinite  relief  he  found  that  the  Dutch  vessels  had 
warped  themselves  out  of  the  way,  thus  displaying  peace- 
able intentions.  The  assault  on  the  fort  itself  was  merely 
one  out  of  a  thousand  such  instances.  It  was  captured 
with  a  rush,  and  the  twin  towns  with  their  booty  and  the 


72       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

rich  cargo  of  the  carrack  fell  into  the  hands  of  Lan- 
caster. 

' '  The  day  of  our  arrival, ' '  says  the  narrator  of  this  in 
a  cynical  note,  ''was  their  Good  Friday,  when  by  custom 
they  usually  whipp  themselves;  but  God  sent  us  now 
for  a  general  scourge  to  them  all,  whereby  that  labour 
among  them  might  be  well  spared. ' ' 

It  was  only  when  this  victory  was  won  that  the  English 
leader  showed  the  full  scope  of  his  enterprising  spirit. 
Here  was  more  rich  plunder  than  could  be  carried  in  his 
own  ships ;  and  there  were  the  three  great  Dutch  vessels 
— early  heralds  of  the  future  Dutch  invasion  of  Northern 
Brazil — whose  crews  could  not  well  help  chafing  with 
envy  at  the  scene  that  was  being  enacted  before  their 
eyes!  Lancaster  dropped  his  raider's  part,  and  became 
a  tactful  merchant.  He  chartered  the  Dutch  ships  on 
liberal  terms,  with  the  result  that  the  men  in  these  were 
soon  working  with  enthusiasm  at  the  loading  of  the  ves- 
sels— which,  of  course,  was  all  to  the  benefit  of  Lancas- 
ter and  his  expedition. 

But  even  now  these  international  episodes  were  not 
yet  at  an  end.  Two  or  three  days  afterwards  three  ships 
and  two  pinnaces  rose  their  sails  over  the  edge  of  the 
blue  ocean.  They  were  French  privateers,  the  captain 
of  one  of  which,  Jean  Noyer,  had  rendered  Lancaster  a 
service  in  the  West  Indies  the  previous  year.  Thus 
cordiality  was  established  from  the  start,  and  as  a  result 
of  Lancaster's  generous  terms  the  French  soon  found 
themselves  allied  to  the  expedition  just  as  the  Dutch 
were. 

Of  the  four  nations  thus  flung  into  contact,  the  Portu- 
guese alone  nourished  a  cause  for  grievance!  First  of 
all  they  endeavored  to  treat  with  Lancaster.  But  Lan- 
caster, when  he  heard  that  the  envoys  were  coming, 
''hung  downe  his  head  for  a  small  season;  and  when  he 
had  muzed  awhile,  he  answered,  'I  must  go  aboard  of  the 
Flemings  upon  business  that  importeth  me'."    Then  he 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  BRITISH  TRADE         73 

fied  from  his  ship  as  though  the  evil  one  himself  were 
after  him.  He  had  himself  rowed  across  to  one  of  the 
Dutch  ships,  and  there  he  sought  complete  seclusion. 
He  refused  to  exchange  a  single  word  with  the  Portu- 
guese, vowdng  that  he  knew  them  too  well  to  run  any  such 
risk! 

^'When  they  cannot  prevail  with  the  sword,"  said  he, 
**then  they  deal  with  their  deceivable  tongues,  for  faith 
and  truth  they  have  none." 

He  must  have  been  honest  in  his  convictions,  for  he 
swore  that  he  would  hang  the  first  Portuguese  who  at- 
tempted a  parley — a  wholesome  precaution,  which  instils 
a  doubt  as  to  whether  his  former  relations  with  the  Port- 
uguese had  been  quite  so  cordial  as  Southey  imagined! 

When  the  wings  of  the  doves  of  peace  definitely  failed 
them  the  Portuguese  sent  off  fireships  instead;  but  the 
careful  watch  and  skilful  work  of  the  sailors  rendered 
them  harmless,  and  attempts  to  cut  the  ship'  cables  were 
foiled  by  the  efficient  crews.  Moreover,  when  they  at- 
tempted to  erect  some  entrenchments  near  the  town  these 
were  captured  by  the  privateers,  and  some  carts  were 
taken  which  proved  of  the  greatest  assistance  in  loading 
the  ships  with  the  spoils  of  the  port! 

The  next  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  Portuguese  was 
to  construct  a  battery  on  the  seashore  with  the  object  of 
raking  the  hostile  fleet  with  their  shot.  A  landing  party 
destroyed  the  work,  although  in  the  course  of  too  reck- 
less a  pursuit  of  the  townsmen  Captain  Barker,  Captain 
Cotton,  two  of  the  French  captains,  and  thirty-five  men 
were  slain.  After  this  the  fleet,  having  occupied  the  port 
for  thirty-one  days,  decided  that  it  would  make  for  home. 

"That  evening,"  says  the  chronicler,  "they  weighed 
anchor  and  sailed  out,  eleven  ships  in  company,  all  richly 
laden,  and  all  reached  their  ports  safely." 

Save  for  the  final  contretemps,  the  expedition  had  pro- 
ceeded without  a  hitch.  And  as  for  this  last,  there  were 
doubtless  some  among  the  mariners  sufficiently  callous 


74       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

to  console  themselves  with  the  reflection  that  it  happened 
during  the  last  day's  stay  in  South  America,  and  with 
calculations  that  set  off  the  advantages  of  a  division  of 
booty  among  fewer  hands  against  the  loss  of  human  lives. 

It  was,  indeed,  as  was  jubilantly  remarked,  "a  well- 
governed  and  prosperous  voyage. ' '  Its  conclusion,  more- 
over, set  the  seal  on  Lancaster's  shrewdness  and  capacity 
for  leaving  well  enough  alone — qualities  quite  as  un- 
usual in  a  sixteenth-  or  seventeenth-century  privateer  as 
in  a  modern  actor.     For  it  was  the  last  he  undertook. 

When  in  1595  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  sailed  his  five  ships 
up  the  stream  of  the  Orinoco,  he  was  already  a  personage 
of  distinction,  a  great  navigator,  a  tried  statesman,  a 
poet,  and  a  close  friend  of  Spenser — no  small  honor  in 
itself — a  writer  of  stirring  prose,  a  brilliant  courtier,  and 
the  petted  favorite  of  his  queen. 

But  of  all  these  things  it  was  as  a  poet  that  Ealeigh 
went  sailing  up  the  Orinoco.  He  was  no  longer  young, 
it  is  true ;  it  was  forty-three  years  since  he  had  been  born 
in  the  Devon  manor  house  near  Budleigh.  In  his  own 
words,  it  was  in  the  winter  of  his  life,  and  with  a  body 
blasted  with  misfortune  that  he  undertook  these  travels. 
Yet,  he  says,  ''I  would  not  doubt  but  for  one  yeere  more 
to  hold  fast  my  soule  in  my  teeth,  till  it  were  performed." 

He  had  navigated,  fought  on  the  sea,  discovered,  and 
colonized — all  this  as  a  practical  man  and  as  an  able  sea- 
man. Now,  for  the  moment,  he  had  thrown  that  frame 
of  mind  aside.  He  had  been  listening  to  rumors  and  tales 
of  fantastic  things — that  might  yet  be  true ! 

The  tales  had  caught  themselves  up  in  his  poet's  mind, 
and  had  set  it  aflame.  He  had  heard  the  elusive  and 
shadowy  accounts  of  the  Kingdom  of  El  Dorado,  the 
Gilded  One,  and  the  romance  of  his  spirit  had  built 
dreams  on  these  misty  foundations,  until  he  could  possess 
himself  no  longer,  but  had  to  yield  to  the  call  of  the  placid 
Orinoco. 

So  far  as  El  Dorado  was  concerned,  Raleigh's  evil  gen- 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  BRITISH  TRADE         75 

ius  was  Don  Antonio  de  Berreo,  the  Spanish  governor 
of  Guiana  whom  he  had  captured,  principally  in  order 
to  teach  him  that  it  was  not  profitable  to  invite  English 
seamen  ashore  to  hunt,  and  then  to  capture  them  in  the 
face  of  his  pledge,  as  he  had  in  the  previous  year! 
Manoa  was  Berreo 's  particular  hobby.  His  love  for  gold 
and  diamonds  seems  to  have  been  as  great  as  his  callous- 
ness toward  the  Indians,  among  whom  he  was  unpopular, 
as  any  person  would  be  who — as  was  his  occasional  habit 
— dropped  burning  bacon  upon  naked  aboriginal  flesh ! 

It  was  through  this  Manoa  that  Berreo  had  his  revenge, 
whether  it  was  intended  or  not.  Raleigh's  pages  are 
eloquent  on  the  point.  Very  soon  it  was  "Berreo  told 
me  this,"  ''Berreo  told  me  that," — and  all  the  tales  were 
of  gold,  in  dust,  and  lumps,  and  plates;  and  of  great 
diamonds  that  shone  under  waterfalls  and  elsewhere! 
So  Raleigh  saw  visions  while  Berreo  talked — Berreo  who 
was  now  "very  valiant  and  liberall,  and  a  gentleman  of 
great  assuredness,  and  of  a  great  heart."  Perhaps,  on 
nearer  acquaintance,  Berreo  possessed  all  this — but  I 
much  misdoubt  that  he  had  the  brain  of  a  fox,  too. 

Raleigh  was  sailing  now  to  put  these  stories  and  these 
dreams  to  the  test.  The  sight  of  the  Orinoco  itself  was 
not  of  the  kind  which  would  dispel  any  illusion.  The 
dense  and  mysterious  forests  whose  green  waves  rolled 
down  to  the  edge  of  the  stream,  the  occasional  sweeping 
aside  of  the  verdure  to  admit  the  tributary  streams  with 
their  splashing  waterfalls — this  in  itself  made  a  suffi- 
ciently romantic  setting  for  the  poet's  mind.  But  when 
the  gorgeous  scarlet,  blue,  and  yellow  of  the  macaws 
flashed  across  the  green,  and  the  almost  equally  brilliant 
toucans  bore  their  gigantic  beaks  from  point  to  point, 
while  the  metallic  fire  of  the  humming-birds  shone  out 
among  the  feathers  of  other  winged  creatures  of  every 
conceivable  hue;  when,  again,  the  brilliance  of  vast  but- 
terflies floated  above  the  log-like  forms  of  the  dozing 
alligators,  and  the  distant  campanero  bird,  unseen  in  its 


76       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

snowy  whiteness,  tolled  out  its  notes  that  so  perfectly 
resembled  a  convent  bell,  and,  finally,  when  at  night  the 
great  demoniacal  wings  of  the  vampire  bats  flitted  by, 
and  the  fireflies  lit  up  water  and  leaf — here  were  scenes 
and  sounds  such  as  made  the  vision  of  El  Dorado  draw 
nearer  and  take  new  life! 

The  curious  fascination  of  the  country  is  admitted  by 
Raleigh  himself  in  his  description  of  an  excursion  toward 
some  great  waterfalls : 

''For  mine  owne  part  I  was  well  perswaded  from 
thence  to  have  returned,  being  a  very  ill  footeman,  but 
the  rest  were  all  so  desirous  to  goe  neere  the  saide  strange 
thunder  of  waters,  as  they  drew  me  on  by  little  and  little, 
ill  wee  came  into  the  next  valley  where  we  might  better 
discerne  the  same.  I  never  saw  a  more  beautifull  coun- 
trey,  nor  more  lively  prospects,  hills  so  raised  here  and 
there  over  the  valleys,  the  river  winding  into  divers 
branches,  the  playnes  adjoyning  without  bush  or  stubble, 
all  faire  greene  grasse,  the  ground  of  hard  sand  easie  to 
march  on,  either  for  horse  or  foote,  the  deere  crossing  in 
every  path,  the  birdes  towards  the  evening  singing  on 
every  tree  with  a  thousand  severall  tunes,  cranes  and 
herons  of  white,  crimson,  and  carnation  pearching  in  the 
rivers  side,  the  aire  fresh  with  a  gentle  Easterly  winde, 
and  every  stone  that  we  stouped  to  takeup,  promised 
either  golde  or  silver  by  his  complexion. ' ' 

It  is  true  that  the  tale  of  El  Dorado  was  fantastic 
enough,  even  for  a  poet  floating  on  such  shining  and 
magic  water  as  these.  As  he  went  on,  Raleigh  picked 
up  more  and  more  fragments  from  both  Indians  and 
white  adventurers.  The  white  stone  palace  on  an  island 
in  a  lake,  the  guardian  lions  chained  by  massive  fetters 
of  gold,  the  great  golden  sun  upon  the  silver  altar,  the 
Dorado,  or  Gilded  Monarch  himself,  whose  body  was  first 
anointed  and  then  blo^vn  upon  with  gold  dust  every  morn- 
ing until  he  was  clothed  from  head  to  foot  in  the  glitering 
metal  of  which  he  held  such  great  store — to  what  ex- 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  BRITISH  TRADE         77 

tent  Raleigh  in  his  own  heart  was  credulous  remains  un- 
solved to  this  day.  Certainly  a  man  of  his  mental  ca- 
pacity can  scarcely  have  swallowed  the  childish  fairy 
tale  of  the  sands  of  gold  and  pebbles  of  diamonds  which 
fringed  the  lake.  He  may  have  considered  that,  on  the 
principle  that  there  is  no  smoke  without  fire,  in  Manoa 
there  was  no  fable  without  a  solid  foundation  of  gold 
somewhere  or  other.  That  he  used  a  story,  of  which  he 
himself  was  entirely  incredulous,  as  a  lever  toward  the 
colonization  of  the  Guianas  is  a  fairly  popular  theory. 
But  surely  it  is  more  probable  and  natural  that  Raleigh 
really  did  credit  the  existence — although  not  necessarily 
in  the  least  as  described  in  the  legend — of  great  stores  of 
gold  in  Guiana.  Is  it  necessary  to  go  afield  to  search 
for  a  more  powerful  magnet  than  this?  Raleigh's  fervid 
imagination  was  a  double-edged  possession — first  a  bril- 
liant servant,  afterwards  a  mortal  enemy ! 

Raleigh  sailed  home,  his  head  still  filled  with  the 
glamour  of  these  enchanted  rivers,  and  we  may  now  take 
a  hasty  survey  of  one  or  two  notable  captains  w^ho  as- 
sisted in  the  exploration  of  Guiana,  and  the  northeast 
of  the  continent.  One  of  the  most  prominent  of  these 
was  Captain  Amyas  Preston,  who  set  out  for  those  lati- 
tudes in  1595,  accompanied  by  Captain  George  Summers. 
The  year  after  (1596)  Captain  Keymis  set  out  and  thor- 
oughly explored  the  coast  of  Guiana,  Captain  Berrie  con- 
tinuing these  explorations  in  1597.  In  this  year,  too. 
Captain  Leigh  explored  the  Guiana  rivers  in  a  bark,  the 
John,  of  London.  An  attempt  to  found  a  definite  settle- 
ment was  made  by  Captain  Leigh  in  1607;  but  sickness 
and  the  wreck  of  a  relief  ship  caused  the  survivors  of  the 
original  company  of  forty-six  to  abandon  the  attempt. 
In  1609,  however,  Robert  Harcourt  essayed  the  venture 
on  a  more  ambitious  scale,  and  in  1613  he  obtained  from 
King  James  I  a  patent  for  all  the  country  between  the 
rivers  Amazon  and  Essequibo. 

All  this  time  Raleigh  had  been  suffering  from  those 


78       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

overwhelming  blows  of  injustice  and  ill-fortune  which 
are  too  familiar  to  even  the  least  historically  curious  to 
be  dilated  on  here.  Stripped  of  his  honors  and  offices, 
he  had  been  flung  into  the  Tower  of  London  by  a  king 
with  an  untrue  heart,  a  watery  spine,  and  a  windy  head. 

Raleigh  had  been  released  in  a  half-hearted  fashion. 
It  was  greed  alone  that  opened  his  prison  doors,  for  he 
was  set  free  only  in  order  that  he  might  make  solid  the 
gold  of  his  Eldorado  and  bring  it  home  to  doubting,  but 
half-hopeful,  James. 

So,  here  he  was,  sailing  down  toward  the  blue  South- 
ern waters  again,  graciously  permitted  by  his  king  to 
attempt  to  add  to  the  latter 's  wealth.  It  must  have  been 
with  mixed  feelings  that  Raleigh  undertook  the  venture. 
Years  before,  when  taunted  with  a  want  of  good  faith 
in  his  enterprise,  he  had  said: 

"For  mine  owne  part,  I  am  not  so  much  in  love  with 
these  long  voyages,  as  to  devise,  therby  to  cozen  my 
selfe,  to  line  hard,  to  fare  worse,  to  be  subjected  to  perils, 
to  diseases,  to  ill  savors,  to  be  parched  and  withered, 
and  withall  to  sustaine  the  care  and  labour  of  such  an 
enterprize,  except  the  same  had  more  comfort,  than  the 
fetching  of  Marcasite  in  Guiana,  or  buying  of  gold  oare 
in  Barbary." 

This  is  a  mere  plain  picture  of  the  marine  hardships 
of  those  days.  But  to  the  troubles  of  this  last  voyage 
were  added  those  of  a  despairing  and  embittered  spirit. 

The  story  of  no  fleet  is  sadder  than  that  of  the  poorly 
manned  squadron  with  which  he  set  out.  Of  the  failing 
of  his  plans,  of  his  own  illness,  of  the  death  of  his  son 
in  action,  of  his  bitter  outburst  of  reproach  against 
Keymis  that  galled  that  gallant  sailor  to  suicide — there 
is  surely  no  necessity  to  repeat  the  details  of  these  fa- 
mous tragedies. 

Far  better  for  him  had  Raleigh — like  Cavendish  and 
his  fellow  Devonians,  Drake  and  Hawkins — died  at  sea. 
He  sailed  into  Plymouth  on  the  21st  of  June,  1618,  a 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  BRITISH  TRADE         79 

broken-hearted,  solitary,  and  doomed  man.  Three 
months  later  he  stood  on  the  scaffold,  and  felt  the  edge 
of  the  ax  he  did  not  fear,  since  it  was,  as  he  explained 
in  the  broad  and  soft  Devon  speech  that  he  had  never 
lost,  *'a  sharp  and  fair  medicine  to  cure  him  of  all  his 
diseases." 

It  was  a  triumph  for  Gondomar,  the  cynical  Spanish 
ambassador  who  had  ceaselessly  intrigiied  and  worked 
against  him,  as  well  he  might,  being  an  enemy.  But 
James  and  his  creatures  had  not  that  excuse. 

So  much  for  Raleigh,  and  for  the  rest  of  the  navigators 
of  that  period.  Only  a  fraction  of  the  number  of  their 
names  and  voyages  has  been  given  here.  But  these  may 
serve  to  recall  some  faint  breaths  of  the  atmosphere  of 
one  of  England's  greatest  ages. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   BUCANEEKS 

Origin  of  the  Bucaneers — Hostilities  between  the  cattle  hunters  of  His- 
paniola  and  the  Spaniards — Reprisals  taken  by  the  "Boucaniers" — 
Dignity  of  the  "Brethren  of  the  Coast" — John  Esquemeling  on  this  sub- 
ject— A  remarkable  community — Its  socialistic  laws — A  comparison  in 
this  respect  with  Mission  settlements  of  Paraguay — ^The  laws  of  the 
bucaneers — Wild  and  savage  pomp  combined  with  careful  business  ar- 
rangements— Meticulous  rules  of  partnership  and  insurance — "No  prey, 
no  pay!" — Respective  results  of  a  profitless  and  successful  cruise — 
Scenes  in  the  bucaneers'  town — Feats  of  the  "Brethren  of  the  Coast" 
— Reasons  for  their  success — Bravery  of  the  Spaniards — Instances  of 
predatory  strategy  and  daring — Viscount  Bury  on  the  bucaneers — Their 
life  and  circumstances  ashore — Food,  costume,  and  customs — How  men 
became  bucaneers — Friendship  between  the  Brethren  of  the  Coast  and 
the  Indians — The  Island  of  Juan  Fernandez — A  haven  to  the  sea-rovers 
— A  thieves'  kitchen  to  the  Spaniards — Ofiicial  order  for  the  extinction 
of  the  island  goats — The  step  from  a  bucaneers'  establishment  to  a  Brit- 
ish colony — British  sections  of  the  bucaneers — Lewis  Scot — John  Davis 
— The  chronicles  of  Basil  Ringrose — Drastic  rules  of  life  adopted  by 
some  of  the  crews — The  celebration  of  divine  service — Prohibition  of 
gambling  and  profanity — An  instance  of  Captain  Sharpe's  merciful  tend- 
encies— Occasional  amenities  between  the  bucaneers  and  Spaniards — 
Some  notes  from  Ringrose's  diary — Pregnant  passages — Some  prominent 
captains — Coxon,  Sawkins,  Sharpe,  Watling,  Lewis  Scot,  John  Davis, 
Teach,  Kidd,  Cowley,  Wafer — Dampier's  youth — How  he  joined  the 
Brethren  of  the  Coast — A  bucaneer  merely  by  chance — His  connection 
with  the  castaways  of  the  Island  of  Juan  Fernandez — Sir  Henry  Morgan 
— His  treacherous  and  greedy  character — A  medley  of  the  jackal  and 
the  lion — The  last  of  the  genuine  bucaneers — Captains  Woodes  Rogers 
and  Stephen  Courtney — A  voyage  that  was  only  partly  of  the  bucaneer 
character — The  expedition  is  cordially  received  by  the  inhabitants  of  a 
small  Brazilian  town — Some  amazing  toasts — The  finding  of  Alexander 
Selkirk — Captain  Rogers'  abstemious  preparations  for  attack — The 
voyage  of  Captains  Clipperton  and  Shelvock. 

WE  now  arrive  at  one  of  the  wildest  and  most 
stormy  of  all  South  American  periods,  that  of 
the  bucaneers.     There  is  no  need  to  enter  at 
any  length  here  into  the  origin,  history,  or  social  causes 

80 


THE  BUCANEERS  81 

of  these  grim  amphibious  beings  who  at  the  height  of 
their  power  pursued  three  principal  callings:  the  tend- 
ing of  their  own  plantations,  the  hunting  of  ownerless 
wild  cattle,  and  the  capture  of  Spanish  ships,  towns,  gold, 
and  goods. 

It  is  natural  to  suppose  that  the  behavior  of  this  ut- 
terly reckless  and  cosmopolitan  set  of  men  would  have 
been  wild  enough  in  the  most  favorable  circumstances. 
The  effect,  therefore,  of  the  repressive  and  irritating 
policy  of  Spain  on  these  desperate  characters  may  be 
imagined.  Without  a  doubt  Spain  brought  most  of  her 
freebooter  troubles  on  herself.  The  first  men  who  on 
the  Hispaniolan  prairies  smoked  their  meat  over  the 
Boucane,  or  woodfire,  wondering  by  day  at  the  gorgeous 
butterflies  and  at  night  marveling  at  the  green-white 
flame  of  the  passing  fireflies,  were  hunters  pure  and 
simple — hunters,  moreover,  of  the  wild  cattle  whose 
enormous  herds  had  only  come  into  existence  since  the 
Spanish  conquistadores  themselves  had  depopulated  the 
island  and  laid  it  waste.  The  Boucaniers,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  never  entirely  abandoned  this  first  occupation  of 
theirs,  and  even  at  the  height  of  their  later  power  they 
would  continue  their  chase  after  the  hides  and  meat, 
until  the  diminishing  herds  of  cattle  forced  them  to  pay 
a  less-divided  attention  to  the  profitable  '* pickings'*  af- 
forded by  their  fellow  men. 

With  these  newcomers,  the  Boucaniers,  the  Spanish 
officials  did  not  find  the  matter  so  easy.  The  hunters,  as 
well  as  the  smugglers  of  all  nationalities,  were  well  able 
to  look  after  themselves.  It  is  true  that  on  many  occa- 
sions they  were  attacked  by  the  Spaniards.  More  than 
once  their  settlements  were  surprised  by  these,  and  their 
houses  burned,  and  the  blood  of  women  and  children 
sprinkled  over  the  charred  embers  and  the  tobacco  leaves 
of  the  young  plantations.  Among  such  treacherous  at- 
tacks were  some  on  the  budding  regular  British  colonies 
— deeds  at  which  Oliver  Cromwell  growled  with  righteous 


82       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

fierceness,  and  with  difficulty  was  restrained  from  flying 
at  the  throat  of  the  Spanish  Empire. 

But,  so  far  as  revenge  was  concerned,  there  was  no 
need.  The  blood  of  the  massacred  welded  together  new 
and  fiercer  communities.  Moreover,  the  fact  that  they 
faced  death,  torture,  or  the  most  terrible  form  of  life- 
long labor  in  the  mines  added  a  further  zest  and  spice 
even  to  the  bucaneers'  racy  recklessness.  The  ''Breth- 
ren of  the  Coast"  were  only  too  willing,  not  only  to 
fight  their  own  battles,  but  to  adapt  themselves  to  the 
most  merciless  methods  of  warfare.  In  the  end  the 
Spaniards  found  themselves  worsted  at  the  inhuman 
game  of  reprisals,  and  most  bitterly  did  they  atone  for 
their  early  barbarities.  The  instruments  of  revenge 
which  their  deeds  forged  against  them  may  not  have 
been  highly  tempered,  but  they  served!  The  name  of 
Morgan  alone  is  synonymous  with  blood  and  tears  for 
hundreds  of  leagues  along  the  Spanish  Main. 

In  the  eyes  of  many  the  scale  on  which  the  bucaneers 
conducted  their  operations  raised  these  from  the  status 
of  mere  plunderings  to  the  dignity  and  pomp  of  actual 
warfare — since  after  all  the  chief  moral  distinction  be- 
tween the  two  seems  to  lie  in  the  point  of  numbers! 
This,  at  all  events,  was  the  view  taken  by  the  seventeenth- 
century  translator  of  John  Esquemeling's  bucaneer 
reminiscences.  In  his  enthusiasm  he  claims  that  this 
work,  in  itself  vastly  interesting:  ''informs  us  (with 
huge  novelty)  of  as  great  and  bold  attempts  in  point  of 
military  conduct  and  valor  as  ever  were  performed  by 
mankind;  without  excepting  here  either  Alexander  the 
Great  or  Julius  Caesar  or  the  rest  of  the  Nine  Worthies 
of  Fame." 

Now  here  is  a  wholehearted  apologist  of  the  bucaneers. 
*'Walk  up!"  he  cries,  standing  on  the  step  of  his  prom- 
isingly reddened  booth.  "Walk  up,  my  peaceful  ama- 
teurs of  vicarious  slaughterings!  Presently  I  will  pull 
the  curtain  back  and  show  you  rapine  and  bloody  gold  on 


THE  BUCANEERS  83 

a  scale  such  as  you  never  dreamed  of!  If  you  don't  find 
the  thing  as  wholesale  as  an  American  beef-trust  you 
shall  have  your  money  back,  on  my  word  as  a  bucaneer's 
translator!" 

Decidedly  at  the  height  of  their  power  the  bucaneers 
made  up  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  communities  that 
the  world  has  ever  seen.  At  this  period  the  South 
American  atmosphere  would  seem  to  have  been  peculiarly 
ripe  in  socialistic  experiments.  At  the  same  time  that 
the  socialist  republic  of  the  Jesuits  flourished  in  Para- 
guay, the  bucaneer  island  settlements  in  the  Caribbean 
Sea  began  to  adopt  the  policy  of  sharing  all  things,  in- 
cluding plunder,  in  common.  It  is  true  that  nothing 
could  have  differed  more  widely  than  the  actual  existence 
of  these  two  peoples.  Where  the  white-shirted  Indian 
converts  went  out  in  a  chaunting  procession  to  till  the 
fields,  the  bucaneers,  their  garments  dyed  the  approved 
scarlet  by  means  of  the  blood  of  cattle,  sailed  out  over 
the  bright  blue  swell  to  sink  and  burn  in  search  of  plun- 
der, and  those  who  resisted  were  made  to  feel  the  force 
of  the  armory  of  cutlasses,  knives,  and  pistols  stuck  in 
each  freebooter's  belt.  And,  if  they  landed,  woe  to  the 
town  that  heard  the  tramp  of  the  advancing  brethren, 
each  ship's  company  under  some  fanciful  flag  designed 
by  its  captain,  the  homely  bunting  occasionally  adorned 
with  the  mocking  gaiety  of  fluttering  ribbons ! 

But  it  must  not  be  imagined  that  such  expeditions  were 
conducted  on  the  mere  rollicking  and  licentious  lines  of 
pillage,  riot,  and  murder.  Though  they  usually  abounded 
in  all  three,  the  bucaneers'  voyages  were  only  undertaken 
after  the  most  careful,  exact,  and  businesslike  prepara- 
tions. It  is  curious  to  reflect  that  that  grim  but  pic- 
turesque object,  a  bucaneers'  ship  under  a  full  press  of 
sail,  with  the  Brethren  of  the  Coast  in  their  caps,  buskins, 
and  blood-hued  garments  disposed  about  the  deck,  re- 
sembled in  its  ethics  nothing  so  much  as  a  modern  limited 
liability  company,  with  its  articles  of  association  meticu- 


84       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

lously  drawn  out,  with  its  officers  and  surgeon  as  direc- 
tors, and  with  its  captain  as  chairman ! 

Yet  it  was  so.  Afloat,  the  association  of  the  men  who 
went  partners  ashore  in  tobacco-planting  and  cooking 
was  carried  to  further  lengths.  Not  a  single  bucaneer 
vessel,  provisioned  with  pork  and  salt  turtle,  pulled  her 
anchor  up  through  the  warm  and  shining  w^aters  of 
Jamaica  or  Tortuga,  but  had  the  respective  shares  of 
profit  of  the  ships'  company  accurately  arranged,  as  well 
as  the  salaries  of  the  captain,  the  surgeon,  and  the  car- 
penter— the  paid  servants  of  the  crew,  who  ate  and  lived 
with  the  rest,  and  shared  all  else  alike.  Then  there  was 
the  insurance  against  the  accidents  of  the  cruise,  and 
the  risks  of  round-shot,  bullet,  and  cutlass.  So  many 
pieces-of-eight  for  a  right  arm  shot  off,  so  many  dollars 
for  a  pierced  eye,  and  so  on  throughout  the  entire  cate- 
gory of  maimed  members.  There  was  just  one  if  on 
which  the  entire  basis  of  pay,  profit,  and  insurance  rested. 
''No  prey,  no  pay,"  was  the  immutable  law  of  the 
Brethren  of  the  Coast.  A  profitless  cruise  meant  empty 
pockets  and  hunger  for  all,  from  captain  to  cabin-boy, 
and  probably  a  lapse  into  a  period  of  slavery  into  which 
a  debtor  was  forced  by  his  creditor  ashore  in  order  to 
discharge  his  liability.  So  these  rovers  on  the  tropical 
seas  took  particular  pains  that  no  cruise  should  be  fruit- 
less, and  saw  to  it  that  no  consideration  for  hfe  or  limb 
should  stand  in  the  way.  Among  themselves  there  was 
no  mercy  extended  to  a  breaker  of  the  fraternity's  laws. 
Marooned  on  a  bare  yellow  strand  surrounded  by  the 
mocking  blue  sea,  they  died  of  thirst  and  their  bones 
grew  bleached  among  the  shining  shells — objects  seen  by 
very  few  beyond  the  gulls,  the  flying-fish,  and  the  now 
incurious  sharks. 

The  reverse  of  this  picture  heaves  with  the  wildest 
and  most  bizarre  life.  On  their  own  mountainous  and 
wooded  island  of  Tortuga  some  hints  of  the  bucaneer 
celebrations  of  a  successful  cruise  have  been  given  by 


THE  BUCANEERS  85 

Esquemeling — that  rare  being  who  combined  the  merits 
of  a  freebooter  and  a  historian,  and  who  published  a 
book  in  Amsterdam  in  1678.  When  a  ship,  emptied  of 
powder  and  shot,  pork  and  turtle,  but  filled  with  gems 
and  pieces  of  eight,  sailed  into  the  rocky  and  verdurous 
harbor  of  Tortuga,  there  would  ensue  wild  scenes  as  the 
shouting  men  came  ashore,  and  swaggered  past  the  palms 
and  flowers  to  the  drinking-booths  and  gambling  dens. 
Perhaps  a  mining-camp  in  the  mid-nineteenth  century 
would  have  supplied  the  nearest  parallel.  Thus  we  find 
a  sturdy  desperado  ruffling  it  in  the  middle  of  the  street 
by  the  side  of  a  cask  of  wine,  forcing  every  passer-by  to 
drink  with  him  at  the  pistol's  mouth.  We  get  a  glimpse 
of  another,  too,  running  amuck  up  and  down  the  street, 
slashing  indiscriminately  at  those  of  his  own  profession, 
well  able  to  look  after  themselves,  and  at  the  terrified 
crowd  of  peaceful,  parasitical,  and  fat-pursed  traders. 
But  it  was  doubtless  the  bucaneers  who  paid  for  their 
fling  in  the  long  run.  The  trader  had  a  very  simple 
revenge  for  all  such  risks.  He  put  up  the  price  of 
powder,  bullets,  and  brandy! 

Had  five-pound  notes  existed,  doubtless  the  bucaneers 
would  have  eaten  them  in  sandwiches  as  did  the  later 
antipodean  miners.  As  it  was,  they  preferred  the  gam- 
bling road  to  a  penniless  condition.  Then,  hungry, 
moody,  and  fierce,  they  would  demand  a  new  ship  and  a 
new  venture.  They  were  short  and  busy  days,  those  of 
affluence.  The  tastes  of  the  rovers  saw  to  it  that  they 
had  not  long  ashore. 

How  was  it,  it  may  well  be  asked,  that  all  this  plunder 
was  won  with  comparative  ease,  and  that  a  few  men  in 
dug-out  canoes  were  able  to  capture  great  Spanish 
galleons'?  The  most  natural  assumption  would  be  that 
of  an  extraordinary  want  of  resolution  among  the  Span- 
iards. But  this  was  not  so.  What  of  the  three  hundred 
and  fourteen  men  of  the  Spanish  garrison  of  Chagres 
who  fought  on  until  only  thirty  men  remained  on  their 


86       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

feet,  and  of  these  thirty,  twenty  were  wounded?  No  lack 
of  courage  there,  surely!  Eingrose  and  others,  more- 
over, bear  witness  to  the  shambles  into  which  many  a 
galleon's  decks  were  turned  before  its  crew  would  sur- 
render. And,  as  Esquemeling's  translator  demands,  in 
justice  to  the  Spaniards : 

''Were  not  600  killed  upon  the  spot  at  Panama,  500 
at  Gibraltar,  almost  as  many  more  at  Puerto  del  Principe, 
all  dying  with  their  arms  in  their  hands  and  facing 
bravely  the  enemy.  .  .  .1" 

No,  the  success  of  their  enterprises  is  to  be  attributed 
to  the  extraordinary  initiative  and  daring  of  the  buca- 
neers,  employed  against  a  brave  enemy,  and  to  that  ex- 
traordinary combination  of  cunning  and  complete  reck- 
lessness which  made  a  hardened  Brother  of  the  Coast 
the  match  of  half-a-dozen  ordinary  men.  What,  for  in- 
stance, can  exceed  the  callous  ingenuity  of  the  rovers, 
who,  their  shot  failing  them  on  a  land  attack,  pulled  to 
pieces  a  great  organ  in  a  neighboring  church,  and  blazed 
away  its  pipes  from  their  cannon's  mouths  at  the  amazed 
and  discomfited  enemy ! 

From  a  strategical  point  of  view  these  haunts  of  the 
bucaneers  were  admirably  situated.  Across  the  narrow 
neck  of  Panama  still  ran  the  "gold  road,"  astride  of 
which  Drake  in  his  o\^ti  time  had  planted  himself,  and 
which  still  groaned  beneath  the  weight  of  the  riches  trans- 
ferred from  the  Pacific  coast.  Moreover,  much  of  the 
treasure  had  stuck  en  route.  Such  towns  as  Panama  and 
the  City  of  Cartagena  to  the  east  were  well  worthy  of 
more  than  one  sacking,  as  many  a  sea-rover  could  have 
told  you  with  grim  complacency. 

Viscount  Bury  in  his  ''Exodus  of  the  Western  Na- 
tions" has  most  ably  described  the  type  and  ambitions 
of  the  later  recruits  of  the  "Brethren  of  the  Coast": 

"It  became  kno^vn  to  lawless  vagabonds,  the  scum  of 
great  European  cities,  that  twice  a  year,  there  passed 
among  the  islands  of  the  tropical  seas  a  procession  of 


THE  BUCANEERS  87 

stately  galleons,  deep  with  the  weight  of  bars  of  gold 
and  silver,  and  bales  of  costly  merchandize,  and  pearls, 
and  gems.  It  was  but  natural  that  men,  feeling  habitu- 
ally the  sharp  pinch  of  misery,  should  turn  with  fierce  de- 
sire to  the  adventurous  life  that  presented  such  allure- 
ments ;  that  they  should  contrast  the  squalor  and  hunger 
in  which  they  passed  their  days  with  the  brilliant  career 
of  the  bold  'Brethren  of  the  Coast';  that  they  should 
long  to  replace  famine  and  sordid  rags  with  the  laced 
coat  and  unlimited  licence  of  the  bucaneer;  that  they 
should  dream  of  the  riches  that  might  reward  the  lucky 
adventurer,  who  should  enjoy  but  for  one  hour  the  plun- 
der of  a  royal  galley,  or  thrust  his  arms  elbow-deep  into 
a  sackful  of  pearls  from  Margarita." 

It  was  such  men  as  these,  completely  reckless,  who 
sailed  down  by  hook  or  by  crook  through  the  steady 
breezes  of  the  Trades,  landed  at  Tortuga  or  Jamaica, 
learned  to  curse  the  mosquitos,  to  live  on  pork,  pigeons 
and  strange  birds,  turtle,  land  crabs  and  curious  fish, 
bananas,  mangoes,  and  wondrous  fruits — and  without  a 
doubt  only  accustomed  themselves  to  the  new  fare  after 
much  indigestion  and  many  torturings  of  their  interiors, 
for  which  the  new  and  almost  incredible  superabundance 
of  tobacco  only  compensated  in  part.  Then  they  would 
fraternize  with  the  easy-going  crowd  of  daredevils  they 
found  there,  and  swilling  brandy  in  the  soft  shade  of 
the  palms,  would  make  overtures  to  the  company  of  a 
stout  ship  fitting  out  for  a  cruise.  Then,  having  made 
his  first  raiding  voyage,  learning  to  drink  the  crudely 
ceremonious  toasts  on  board  to  the  accompaniment  of 
the  roaring  cannon,  and  possibly  having  fleshed  his  cut- 
lass, the  new  Brother  of  the  Coast  would  find  his  pocket 
weighed  down  with  unaccustomed  pieces  of  eight,  and 
would  buy  an  Indian  woman  ''at  the  price  of  a  knife,  or 
any  old  ax,  wood-bill  or  hatchet,"  as  Esquemeling  has  it. 
If  he  were  wise,  he  would  observe  the  same  good  faith  as 
did  his  companions  toward  the  Indians  of  the  mainland 


88       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

and  the  islands,  and  would  do  nothing  to  destroy  the  time- 
honored  alliance  and  intimacy  between  the  Brethren  of 
the  Coast  and  the  infinitely  useful  native  hunters,  fishers, 
guides,  and  gleaners  of  information.  Failure  in  this 
would  have  been  a  serious  matter  for  a  budding  bucaneer, 
for  this  friendship  of  the  Indians  was  keenly  valued  by 
the  sea-roving  community. 

Sometimes,  but  much  more  rarely,  an  ambitious  cruise 
would  lead  the  bucaneer  into  the  Pacific.  There,  for  a 
certainty,  his  ship  would  rendezvous,  provision  and  water 
at  the  Island  of  Juan  Fernandez.  Surely  throughout  all 
the  oceans  of  the  world  there  was  never  so  minute  an  isle 
of  such  moment  as  that  of  Juan  Fernandez.  In  the  eyes 
of  the  average  person  its  chief  claim  to  fame  is  that  it 
once  harbored  the  lonely  Alexander  Selkirk.  But,  not- 
withstanding the  extent  to  which  it  has  been  prosed  and 
sung,  that  event  is  in  reality  a  very  minor  one  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  place. 

The  true  significance  of  the  Island  of  San  Juan  lay 
in  the  fact  that  it  stood  as  a  refuge,  not  alone  for  a  single 
castaway  but  for  every  vessel  of  non-Spanish  nationality 
which  had  beaten  and  buffeted  its  way  from  Atlantic  to 
Pacific.  It  was  a  place  of  shelter  by  the  way  on  whose 
grassy  stretches  the  tired  and  scurvy-stricken  crews  of 
a  corsair  or  royal  ship  could  cast  themselves  down  in 
the  shade  of  the  trees,  and  breathe  in  restful  peace  while 
recuperating  in  preparation  for  their  raids  on  the  Pacific 
coast. 

To  the  bucaneer,  the  slopes  and  trees  and  grasses  of 
Juan  Fernandez  stood  out  from  the  ocean  as  a  godsend : 
in  the  eyes  of  the  Spaniards  the  place  loomed  darkly  as  a 
thieves'  kitchen.  They  grudged  the  great  wealth  of  fish 
which  frequented  its  coast,  and  the  edible  plants  with 
which  its  soil  abounded.  And  they  had  reason;  for  it 
was  by  such  fresh  food  that  the  spent  and  invalided  hostile 
sailors  regained  a  condition  of  health  that  was  peculiarly 
unwelcome  to  the  Spaniard!     The  numerous  herds  of 


THE  BUCANEERS  89 

goats,  moreover,  which  flourished  in  the  island  found 
favor  neither  with  the  viceroy  sitting  in  his  palace  at 
Lima,  nor  with  the  governor  of  Chile  stationed  in  his 
more  modest  habitation.  Let  there  be  no  more  goats  on 
Juan  Fernandez !  was  the  official  command,  and  packs  of 
hounds  were  ferried  across  to  the  island  to  swallow  the 
nuisance  and  to  forestall  the  hostile  sailors.  Even  then, 
a  large  proportion  of  these  irritating  goats  succeeded  in 
eluding  the  hounds,  and  in  preserving  their  unpatriotic 
carcasses  for  the  benefit  of  heretic  enemies.  A  bitter  pill, 
this,  for  the  Spanish  authorities,  for  undoubtedly  steril- 
ity and  lifelessness  in  Juan  Fernandez  would  have  meant 
the  preservation  of  many  sacked  cities  on  the  Pacific 
coast. 

In  what  may  be  termed  their  home  waters  of  the  Carib- 
bean Sea  the  deeds  of  many  of  these  Brethren  of  the 
Coast  were  destined  to  play  a  larger  part  in  history  than 
they  themselves  suspected.  It  was  not  such  a  very  long 
step  from  a  bucaneers'  establishment  to  a  British  colony. 
So  much  was  discovered  by  the  bucaneers  themselves  on 
more  than  one  occasion,  when  quite  suddenly  the  pres- 
ence of  a  royal  governor  put  an  end  to  their  free  and 
easy  councils.  It  was  in  a  sense  a  compliment  to  them- 
selves that  their  Government  had  taken  them,  and  their 
lands,  seriously.  But  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that 
these  red-garmented  gentlemen  sulked  for  a  while  when 
they  found  themselves  cold-shouldered.  They  were  con- 
cerned chiefly  with  their  pockets,  and  decidedly  such  part 
as  they  played  in  the  building  up  of  so  magnificent  a 
structure  as  that  of  the  British  Empire  was  not  pre- 
meditated. 

We  are  concerned  here  with  the  British  section  alone 
of  the  cosmopolitan  army  of  bucaneers,  and  must  pass 
over  the  wild  doings  of  such  of  their  comrades  as 
Bartholomew  Portugues,  Rock  Brasiliano,  and  Frangois 
Lolonois.  At  the  same  time  one  may  pause  to  remark 
that  this  species  of  nomenclature  is  eloquent  enough  in 


90       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

itself.  Where  the  personal  name  is  sunk  beneath  a  na- 
tional or  territorial  substitute,  it  may  be  taken  for 
granted — as  in  one  or  two  small,  floating,  and  reckless 
communities  to-day — that  the  motive  for  this  is  not  in  the 
least  concerned  with  pride  of  repute  or  achievement ! 

So  far  as  their  deeds  are  concerned,  the  doings  of  these 
British  bucaneers — like  those  of  their  comrades  of  other 
nationalities — very  rapidly  become  monotonous  to  re- 
late. They  soon  began  to  vary  the  capturing  of  ships  by 
the  sacking  of  coast  towns,  Lewis  Scot  setting  an  ex- 
ample in  this  respect  by  his  storm  of  Campeachy — an  ex- 
ample that  was  followed  with  success  by  John  Davis  and 
the  rest  of  the  Brotherhood. 

The  record,  indeed,  is  monotonous  in  its  mere  wild- 
ness.  Chases  at  sea,  cutting-out  expeditions,  boarding- 
parties,  attacks  on  lordly  galleons  frequently  carried  out 
in  mere  dug-out  canoes,  river  expeditions  in  little  na- 
tive craft ;  battles,  burnings,  and  plunderings  ashore ;  the 
stripping  of  the  dead,  the  taking  of  prisoners,  and  their 
occasional  execution,  the  excesses  and  riots  which  fol- 
lowed a  victory — it  is  on  these  points  that  the  changes  of 
the  tale  must  be  rung  over  and  over  again. 

Yet  even  the  most  reckless  and  dissolute  of  all  these 
ships'  companies  was  not  altogether  inhuman.  The 
chronicles  of  Basil  Eingrose — the  second  historian  of  the 
true  genus  bucaneer,  who  eventually  met  his  death  at  the 
hands  of  the  Spaniards  on  the  occasion  of  a  shore  raid 
in  1688 — showed  that  the  ordering  spirit  of  humanity  had 
allowed  no  such  departure  from  its  laws. 

It  would,  of  course,  be  the  simplest  matter  to  picture 
the  life  of  the  British  bucaneers  as  a  continuous  pande- 
monium of  oaths,  blows,  drunken  orgies,  and  general 
debauchery.  Of  all  these  there  was  a  ruddy  and  plentiful 
harvest;  but  there  was  a  good  deal  beyond.  The  exist- 
ence of  these  strange  folk  was  sufficiently  complex.  On 
some  vessels,  for  instance,  divine  service  was  celebrated 
each  Sunday,  and  it  is  possible  enough  that  these  services 


THE  BUCANEERS  91 

were  undertaken  with  some  dim  but  genuine  fervor,  for 
mere  respectability  and  outward  appearance  were  of  less 
than  no  account  in  the  community!  How  much  it  com- 
forted a  dying  Spaniard  to  know  that  a  service  of  prayer 
had  preceded  a  surprise  attack  on  his  vessel  is  far  more 
doubtful.  One  or  two  bucaneer  crews  actually  went 
further,  and  their  articles  forbade  profanity  and  gam- 
bling— of  course  merely  until  a  more  fitting  opportunity 
arose  ashore,  since  the  regulation  was  clearly  one  of 
expediency  rather  than  morality. 

There  appear,  moreover,  to  have  been  fairly  frequent 
protests  against  actions  of  cruelty  in  cold  blood,  and 
Ringrose  himself  relates  that  on  one  occasion  the  notable 
bucaneer,  Captain  Sharpe,  when  his  pleadings  for  the 
life  of  an  old  captain  were  of  no  avail,  took  water  and 
washed  his  hands,  vowing  that  he,  for  one,  would  be  in- 
nocent of  the  man's  blood, 

Ringrose  himself  seems  to  have  been  inclined  to  mercy, 
for  he  relates  with  indignant  warmth  how  having  saved 
the  lives  of  some  Spanish  prisoners  from  the  hands  of 
their  hated  enemies,  the  Mosquito  Indians,  his  men  would 
have  given  them  back  to  their  would-be  murderers  as 
soon  as  his  back  was  turned.  He  succeeded  in  saving 
them  for  the  second  time,  and  his  reward  came  when, 
having  been  himself  shortly  afterwards  captured  by  the 
Spaniards,  one  of  the  men  whom  he  had  rescued  chanced 
to  be  on  the  spot.  Then  ensued  a  scene  of  the  kind  which 
one  does  not  usually  associate  with  the  relations  between 
bucaneer  and  Spaniard.  For  the  Spanish  captain,  hav- 
ing heard  the  story,  embraced  Ringrose,  and  feasted  him 
and  his  companions.  Then  he  gave  them  back  their 
canoe,  and  bade  them  *'Go  in  God's  name,  saying  withal, 
he  wished  us  as  fortunate  as  we  were  generous." 

Although  this  was  a  sufficiently  astonishing  incident, 
the  optimist  in  human  nature  will  read  with  some  com- 
fort that  it  was  not  alone  of  its  kind.  On  another  occa- 
sion on  that  very  same  voyage  some  bucaneer  prisoners 


92       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

were  "very  civilly  entertained"  at  Africa  on  the  Pacific 
coast,  ''but  more  especially  by  the  women." 

Indeed,  to  show  the  amazing  and  versatile  fashion  in 
which  a  bucaneer's  day  might  be  altered,  it  will  suffice 
to  cull  a  final  extract  from  Ringrose.  The  manner  in 
which  the  affairs  of  goats,  duels,  mutinies,  drunkenness, 
and  revelry  are  mixed  up  is  surely  eloquently  and  incom- 
parably casual!     Here  is  the  notable  fragment: 

''August  12th,  in  the  morning,  we  came  to  an  anchor 
at  the  aforesaid  isle  {that  of  Plate).  We  sent  our  boat 
ashore  with  men,  as  we  had  done  formerly,  to  kill  goats, 
but  we  found  them  to  be  extremely  shy  and  fugitive, 
compared  w^ith  what  they  were  the  last  year.  Here  it  was 
that  our  quartermaster,  James  Chappel,  and  myself 
fought  a  duel  together  on  shore.  In  the  evening  of  this 
day,  our  slaves  agreed  among  themselves,  and  plotted  to 
cut  us  all  in  pieces,  not  giving  quarter  to  any,  when  we 
should  be  buried  in  sleep.  They  conceived  this  night  af- 
forded them  the  fittest  opportunity,  by  reason  that  we 
were  all  in  drink." 

The  discovery  of  the  plot,  its  prevention,  and  the  shoot- 
ing of  a  slave,  occupy  three  or  four  more  lines.  The  end 
of  the  paragraph  discloses  everything  apparently 
straightened  out  again,  every  one  "being  very  merry  all 
the  while  with  the  wine  and  brandy  we  had  taken  in  the 
prize."  Truly,  an  efficient  bucaneer's  life  was  a  breath- 
less one! 

This  extraordinary  terseness  of  Eingrose's  diary  fre- 
quently causes  its  reader  to  wonder  not  a  little  as  to  what 
really  lay  at  the  back  of  these  simple  little  sentences. 
"James  Chappel  and  myself  fought  a  duel  together  on 
shore!"  And  here  is  another,  relating  to  a  captured 
ship:  "In  this  vessel  I  saw  the  most  beautiful  woman 
that  I  ever  saw  in  the  South  Sea."  Put  the  two  to- 
gether, compare  them,  and  I  think  that  you  may  safely 
drop  a  tear  to  the  memory  of  the  most  beautiful  woman 
in  the  South  Sea ! 


THE  BUCANEERS  93 

I  have  no  intention  here  of  attemping  to  enter  into  the 
lives  and  deeds  of  all  the  British  bucaneers.  The  preg- 
nant paragraph  just  quoted  must  suffice  to  demonstrate 
the  impossibility  of  this.  Their  passages  across  the 
Isthmus  of  Panama  from  one  ocean  to  another,  their  em- 
barcations  in  frail  canoes,  mosquito  flotillas  that  become 
metamorphosed  into  fleets  of  galleons  as  the  boarding 
parties  became  busy  and  the  prizes  grew — these  inci- 
dents in  themselves  suffice  for  numerous  bulky  volumes. 

Of  the  men  themselves,  too,  enough  has  already  been 
written  to  send  them  down  through  all  the  ages  to  pos- 
terity clearly  painted  in  all  the  wild  and  glaring  detail 
of  their  lives.  Their  names  conjure  up  some  grim 
specters  of  the  past,  and  some  really  gallant  deeds  as 
well.  Captains  Coxon,  Sawkins,  Sharp,  Watling,  Lewis 
Scot,  John  Davis,  Teach,  Kidd,  Sharp,  Cowley,  Wafer — 
each  of  these  Brethren  of  the  Coast  has  hacked  his  own 
niche  in  history,  and  is  memorable  for  what  he  took 
rather  than  for  what  he  gave ! 

The  name  of  Dampier,  however,  gives  one  pause,  for, 
like  many  more  of  the  tribe  than  casual  history  records,  it 
was  a  curious  combination  of  circumstances  and  sheer 
fatality  rather  than  temperament  and  natural  inclination 
which  drove  him  to  join  the  Brotherhood.  A  Devon 
farmer's  son,  he  approached  the  life  of  the  bucaneer  by 
the  respectable  path  of  a  Jamaica  plantation  manager's 
post,  and,  curiously  enough  (though  some  pessimist  might 
retort  that  it  was  naturally  enough),  it  was  only  after  his 
marriage  that  he  began  to  tread  the  same  decks  as  the 
bucaneers.  Dampier  soon  proved  himself  a  fine  naviga- 
tor, circumnavigating  the  world  among  his  other  feats, 
and  the  advantages  of  his  education  enabled  him  to  record 
liis  adventures  in  a  much  more  distinguished  fashion  than 
that  of  the  remaining  British  bucaneer  chroniclers.  Sharp, 
Cowley,  Ringrose,  and  Wafer. 

It  was  Dampier 's  fate  to  be  closely  connected  with  the 
castaways  of  the  Island  of  Juan  Fernandez,  for  it  was 


94       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

his  vessel  which — weighing  anchor  in  a  hurry  on  the  ap- 
pearance of  three  Spanish  men-of-war — accidentally  left 
behind  the  friendly  Mosquito  Indian  known  as  William, 
the  first  hermit  of  Juan  Fernandez.  It  was  on  a  much 
later  voyage,  too,  in  1708,  that  the  vessel  in  which  Dam- 
pier  sailed  took  up  from  the  island  the  much  more  famous 
Alexander  Selkirk.  As  for  Dampier  himself,  he  died  in 
obscurity.  He  was  in  reality  a  very  notable  man,  a  skilled 
navigator,  and  a  bucaneer  by  the  merest  chance. 

It  was  different  with  the  redoubtable  Sir  Henry  Mor- 
gan, the  admiral  of  the  bucaneers,  and  the  most  notorious 
of  all  their  number.  Morgan,  whose  headquarters  were 
Jamaica,  was  heart  and  soul  a  Brother  of  the  Coast — 
save  that  he  lacked  just  that  one  virtue  which  even  the 
most  dissolute  of  the  company  was  wont  to  boast,  loyalty 
to  his  fellows.  Perhaps  Morgan  founded  his  actions  as  a 
bucaneer  on  the  basis  of  his  early  experience  in  the  West 
Indies.  The  fact  that  on  his  first  landing  at  Barbados 
he  was  treacherously  sold  as  a  slave  cannot  have  softened 
his  natural  instincts !  For  all  that,  his  success  was  phe- 
nomenal, and  culminated — having  first  remorselessly 
blown  up  a  castleful  of  Spaniards — in  his  storming  of 
Panama,  when  a  wailing  eddy  of  nuns  and  priests  were 
driven  forward  remorselessly  as  the  front  rank  of  his 
two  thousand  desperadoes.  As  to  the  sack  of  Panama, 
no  other  plundering  in  the  world  has  exceeded  it  in  the 
wildness  and  terror  of  its  debauch.  When  it  was  all 
done,  moreover,  the  greedy  and  treacherous  Morgan  left 
more  than  weeping  women  and  the  corpses  of  men  be- 
hind him.  He  w^as  followed  by  the  curses  of  his  allies, 
whom  with  his  usual  cool  and  calculating  daring,  he  had 
left  in  the  lurch.  For  in  his  ship,  as  it  dipped  away  from 
sight  down  below  the  horizon,  were  many  tens  of  thou- 
sand of  pieces  of  eight,  and  a  great  hoard  of  gold  and 
silver  ornaments  that  should  have  been  theirs. 

Undoubtedly  in  Morgan's  character  the  jackal  added 
a  very  shrill  howl  to  the  lion's  roar.    What,  for  instance, 


THE  BUCANEERS  95 

could  be  a  more  eloquent  study  in  consummate  meanness 
than  the  pains  he  took  to  seek  out  the  bodies  of  his 
drowned  comrades  as  they  floated  on  the  sea — not  in 
order  to  give  the  corpses  decent  burial,  but  to  despoil 
them  of  their  rings  and  richer  clothes. 

But  Morgan  had  the  fortunate  knack  of  floating  on  the 
surface  of  involved  affairs.  He  escaped  the  vengeance 
of  his  wronged  comrades,  and  continued  to  escape  it 
when,  a  knighted  governor  of  Jamaica,  he  cynically 
hounded  down  in  the  name  of  the  law  those  very  men  by 
the  side  of  whom  he  had  once  fought,  slain,  and  plundered, 
and  with  whom  he  had  sworn  eternal  comradeship. 

Decidedly  Morgan  appeared  as  the  loudest  squawk  in 
the  swan  song  of  the  bucaneers,  for  at  the  close  of  the 
seventeenth  century  when  a  Bourbon  came  to  the  throne 
of  Spain  the  true  Brethren  of  the  Coast  passed  away,  and 
were  succeeded  by  lesser  and  indiscriminate  pirates, 
whose  methods  by  comparison  were  vulgar  and  parochial. 

We  may  close  this  chapter  with  some  details  of  one  or 
two  voyages  which,  although  they  recall  the  bucaneer 
flavor  up  to  a  certain  point,  were,  officially,  of  an  author- 
ized and  privateering  nature. 

Captain  Woodes  Eogers  set  sail  from  Bristol  on  the 
1st  of  August,  1708,  in  command  of  a  thirty-gun  ship,  the 
Duke.  Dampier  sailed  with  him  as  one  of  his  officers, 
and  he  was  accompanied  by  the  twenty-six  gun  ship,  the 
Duchess,  commanded  by  Captain  Stephen  Courtney.  The 
expedition  held  a  commission  from  Prince  George  of 
Denmark,  Lord  High  Admiral  of  England,  to  cruise  in 
the  South  Seas  against  the  Spaniards  and  French. 

Having  captured  a  prize  or  two,  the  vessels  put  in  at 
Rio  de  Janeiro,  casting  anchor  near  a  village  some 
leagues  from  the  capital.  Here  the  fact  that  some  French 
privateers  were  in  the  neighborhood  caused  an  unusually 
warm  welcome  to  be  extended  to  the  British  seamen  by 
the  Portuguese,  doubtless  largely  owing  to  the  hope  of 
added  protection  thus  brought  them. 


96       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

Indeed — apart  from  the  routine  of  chasing  vessels, 
which  after  a  time  grows  monotonous  to  relate — one  of 
the  notable  circumstances  of  this  voyage  was  the  lengths 
to  which  the  cordiality  between  the  Portuguese  and  the 
British  was  carried — though  this  did  not  prevent  one  or 
two  of  the  usual  attempts  at  inveigling  British  seamen  on 
shore — in  order  that,  as  deserters,  their  labor  might  be 
available  for  the  mines ! 

The  record  of  one  day  alone  at  the  little  town  of  Angre 
de  Eeyes  suffices  to  take  away  the  breath  of  one  familiar 
with  the  usual  ceremonious  and  stilted  intercourse  such 
as  characterized  the  relations  between  Iberian  governors 
and  British  sailors.  This  was  the  27th  of  October,  when 
the  governor,  most  unreservedly  friendly,  sent  word  to 
know  if  the  British  would  lend  their  ** music"  to  head  a 
procession  in  honor  of  the  Virgin  Mary.  By  all  means ! 
replied  the  seamen.  And  so  behold  the  procession  set- 
ting out  through  the  very  modest  streets  of  Angre  de 
Eeyes,  banners  waving,  candles  flaming,  incense  smoking 
— and,  at  the  head  of  all,  the  "music"  of  the  British 
vessels,  which  consisted  of  a  hautboy  and  two  trumpets, 
the  blowers  of  which — owing  to  the  too  generous  local 
offers  of  liquor — were  just  a  little  the  worse  for  wear. 
But  they  appear  to  have  maintained  decorum,  no  doubt 
largely  owing  to  the  presence  in  the  procession  of  Cap- 
tain Rogers,  Captain  Courtney,  and  the  other  officers  of 
the  Duke  and  Duchess,  each  of  whom  carried  a  wax 
taper. 

But  by  far  the  most  amazing  thing  was  yet  to  happen. 
The  procession  at  an  end,  the  British  officers,  having  been 
feasted,  returned  to  their  ships  in  a  hospitable  mood,  and 
then  invited  the  chief  men  of  the  place  to  come  aboard 
and  be  entertained  in  their  turn.  Presently,  when  the 
liquor  had  got  well  under  way,  the  Portuguese  toasted 
the  pope,  to  whom  the  sailors  drank  with  jovial  enthusi- 
asm. Then  Rogers,  declaiming  in  his  turn,  gave  first 
the  health  of  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  then, 


THE  BUCANEERS  97 

in  order  that  no  one  should  be  forgotten,  called  on  his 
guests  to  drink  to  William  Penn,  the  Quaker.  And  to 
both  of  these  the  Portuguese  drank  deep !    What  a  day ! 

Whether  Rogers,  following  the  time-honored  customs 
of  the  bucaneers,  had  these  toasts  saluted  by  salvoes  of 
artillery  I  know  not.  They  may  have  been  considered 
sufficiently  startling  without  any  such  addition. 

It  w^as  on  this  voyage  that  Rogers  discovered  Alex- 
ander Selkirk  after  his  four  years'  and  four  months' 
lonely  residence,  and  that  super-castaway  was  made  mate 
of  the  Duke  on  the  spot. 

The  remainder  of  the  log  is  made  up  of  the  usual  chases 
and  captures  on  the  Pacific,  and  of  a  lengthy,  patient,  and 
cat-like  lying  in  wait  for  the  Manila  galleon.  When  one 
appeared  (that  proved  worth  two  million  dollars  to  the 
crews)  it  is  only  with  mixed  feelings  that  one  may  read 
of  Rogers'  preparations  for  the  attack.  Having  no  spir- 
ituous liquor  on  board,  he  caused  a  great  kettleful  of 
chocolate  to  be  made  for  the  men !  Could  anything  have 
been  less  rollicking — less  appropriate  to  the  latitude  and 
period !  Then  he  called  his  crew  to  prayers,  and  success- 
fully engaged  the  galleon. 

In  1719,  Captain  Clipperton,  w^ho  had  served  under 
Dampier,  set  sail  for  the  South  Seas  with  his  two  vessels, 
one,  the  Success  commanded  by  himself,  the  second,  the 
Speedwell,  in  charge  of  Captain  Shelvock,  formerly  of 
the  royal  navy. 

Less  than  a  week  after  they  had  left  Plymouth  a  severe 
gale  separated  the  two  vessels,  which  did  not  meet  again 
until  chance  happened  to  bring  them  together  in  the 
Pacific  Ocean.  The  misfortune  was  felt  the  more 
keenly  by  the  Success,  since,  as  ill-luck  had  it,  the  Speed- 
well carried  the  entire  stock  ot  liquor  for  the  two  ships. 

The  Success  appears  to  have  attempted  nothing  in  the 
Atlantic,  arriving  at  Juan  Fernandez  vexed  by  scurvy 
and  beaten  by  storms.  Here  they  stocked  their  larder 
with  a  great  number  of  the  goats  with  which  the  island 


98       BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

abounded,  but  on  the  other  hand  they  left  behind  them 
two  seamen  who,  desiring  to  play  at  Alexander  Selkirk 
in  company,  had  deserted.  After  this  comes  the  usual 
record  of  prizes,  and  on  account  of  a  stay  at  Cocos  Is- 
land, in  order  that  the  crew  should  have  an  opportunity 
of  recovering  from  the  sickness  attending  a  long  cruise. 

Off  the  coast  of  Mexico,  Clipperton  chased  a  ship  which, 
when  overhauled,  proved  to  be  the  Jesu  Maria,  com- 
manded by  Captain  Shelvock,  and  manned  by  forty  of 
the  survivors  of  the  Speedwell's  crew.  Here  was  a  dra- 
matic meeting.  The  Speedwell,  it  appeared,  had  been 
wrecked  on  the  Island  of  Juan  Fernandez,  and  with  her 
timbers  a  smaller  vessel  had  been  built,  by  means  of 
which  they  had  captured  their  present  prize. 

The  Island  of  Juan  Fernandez  had  seen  many  queer 
things,  but  probably  nothing  stranger  than  the  boat  which 
set  out  from  its  shores,  holding  forty  persons,  crowded 
together,  four  live  hogs,  one  cask  of  beef,  and  over  two 
thousand  smoked  conger-eels,  on  the  odorous  bundles  of 
which  the  men,  for  want  of  room,  were  forced  to  lie ! 

It  soon  became  evident  to  Clipperton  that  Shelvock 
and  his  crew  were  no  longer  inclined  to  sail  in  company 
with  him,  nor  to  share  the  considerable  booty  they  had 
amassed.  So  the  Success  sailed  away  to  China,  leaving 
Shelvock  to  his  own  devices.  The  latter,  after  some 
further  cruising,  followed  in  the  track  of  the  Success  to 
the  west. 


PAET  II 
THE  BRITISH  IN  COLONIAL  SOUTH  AMERICA 


CHAPTER  V 

EARLY   BRITISH    ADVENTURERS   IN    SPANISH   AMERICA 

Reasons  for  the  slender  English  records  during  the  colonial  period  of  the 
continent — Influence  of  the  Inquisition — The  Spaniard  in  his  ofEcial 
and  in  his  private  capacity — Questions  of  faith — Englishmen  who  sailed 
to  Paraguay  in  1534  with  Pedro  de  Mendoza's  expedition — The  town  of 
"Londrez" — Cause  of  the  nomenclature — The  Chilean  census  of  1788 — 
A  late  proof  of  the  phenomenal  dearth  of  foreigners — Conditions  which 
obtained  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries — Influence  of  the 
Spanish  occupation  of  Brazil — Method  of  receiving  strangers  in  that 
colony — Inhospitality  to  foreigners  general  throughout  South  America 
until  the  independence  of  the  continent — Early  English  Jesuits  in 
South  America — The  kidnapped  London  boy,  John  Martin,  develops  into 
Joao  d' Almeida,  a  noted  Brazilian  saint — His  enthusiastic  scourgings  of 
the  flesh — Veneration  in  which  he  was  held — Father  Tliomas  Fields — 
A  famous  Irish  Jesuit — Captured  by  an  English  bucaneer — Alleged  fate 
of  the  most  violent  of  the  captors — Father  Field's  work  in  Paraguay — 
Sacred  ceremonies  at  sea — English  vessels  engaged  in  the  slave  trade — 
Privileges  granted  to  these — South  America  as  a  refuge  for  the  social 
outcast — Irish  settlers — Their  popularity  in  the  continent — Special  con- 
cessions granted  them — Their  success  as  pastoralists — Method  of  part- 
nership with  the  South  Americans — Ambrose  O'Higgins — The  greatest 
British  figure  in  South  America — Circumstances  of  his  youth — Arrival 
in  South  America — As  a  humble  immigrant  he  takes  up  a  minor  com- 
mercial career — His  success  as  an  itinerant  trader — The  road  from  that 
situation  to  the  viceregal  throne — O'Higgins,  when  middle-aged,  enters 
the  Spanish  colonial  service — His  work  among  the  Araucanian  Indians 
— Various  governorships  held — Increasing  velocity  of  his  upward  career 
— His  liberal  policy  as  captain-general  of  Chile — Ambrose  O'Higgins 
becomes  Viceroy  of  Peru — His  achievements  while  holding  this  high 
office — Death  of  O'Higgins — His  career  compared  with  that  of  his  son 
Bernardo. 

THE  records  of  the  English  during  the  early 
colonial  period  of  South  America  are  naturally 
very  slender.  So  far  as  Spanish  America  was 
concerned,  this  could  scarcely  have  been  otherwise.  We 
have  already  seen  that  the  political  and  religious  aim  of 

101 


102      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

the  Spanish  Empire  was  the  complete  seclusion  of  its 
colonies.  When  not  even  every  province  of  Las  Espanas, 
the  Spains  themselves,  was  given  free  access  to  the 
South  American  colonies,  it  may  be  imagined  what  diffi- 
culties lay  in  the  path  of  the  foreigner — and,  above  all, 
the  heretic — who  had  a  longing  to  taste  of  the  vast  riches 
in  which  the  Southern  shores  were  reputed  to  abound. 

The  marvel,  therefore,  is  not  that  those  English  expedi- 
tions which  harried  the  shores  of  Spanish  South  Amer- 
ica should  have  met  with  so  few  of  their  own  fellow  coun- 
trymen, but  rather  that  they  should  have  been  brought 
into  contact  with  so  many.  In  centers  such  as  Lima  and 
other  places  where  the  Inquisition  was  powerful  and  in- 
quisitors numerous  there  is  no  doubt  that  unrepentant 
'* heretics"  were  burned  or  otherwise  put  out  of  the  way 
by  the  annihilating  laws  of  the  auto-da-fe.  But  Span- 
ish South  America  was  wide,  and  the  dread  even  of  the 
Inquisition  did  not  succeed  in  obtruding  itself  the  entire 
length  of  the  Pacific,  to  say  nothing  of  the  Atlantic  coast. 
There  were  many  kindly  Spaniards,  official  and  other, 
who  shrugged  their  shoulders,  and  winked  at  the  growing 
intimacy  between  the  South  American  colonists  and  a 
stranded  mariner  or  two. 

Nevertheless,  such  cases  were  rare  enough,  and  such  of 
their  countrymen,  as  the  Northern  seamen  met  with  on 
their  expeditions  were  nearly  always  of  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic faith.  These  seemed  to  come  to  the  surface  of  the 
spray  of  events  with  considerable  frequency.  They  were 
met  with  both  on  shore  and  in  command  of  Spanish  ves- 
sels, and  such  meetings  were  by  no  means  always  of  a 
friendly  character. 

Indeed,  there  are  instances  of  English  Roman  Catholics 
in  the  service  of  Spain  accompanying  some  of  the  earliest 
of  the  expeditions  to  South  America.  One  is  said  to  have 
accompanied  Pizarro's  force,  and  three — John  Rutter  of 
London,  Nicholas  Coleman  of  Hampton,  and  Richard 
Liman  of  Plymouth — sailed  with  Pedro  de  Mendoza  in 


EARLY  BRITISH  ADVENTURERS  103 

1534  to  the  mouth  of  the  River  Plate,  thence  to  Paraguay, 
where  they  appear  to  have  settled  down. 

Out  of  the  mists  of  the  early  Spanish  colonization  of 
the  interior  of  the  continent  the  aftermath  of  a  sudden 
explosion  of  cordiality  still  remains.  In  the  Province 
of  Catamarca,  which  now  belongs  to  the  Argentine  Re- 
public, is  a  small  village  boasting  the  name  of  ''Londres." 
This  is  the  result  of  one  of  the  farthest-flung  eddies  which 
the  marriage  of  Mary  of  England  to  Philip  II  of  Spain 
set  in  being.  The  nomenclature  must  have  been  the  work 
of  a  tactful  local  governor.  Nevertheless,  considering 
the  extreme  remoteness  of  Catamarca  from  Spain,  it  is 
quite  possible  that,  by  the  time  the  news  of  the  marriage 
arrived  and  the  name  had  been  given,  the  hope  of  na- 
tional alliance,  and  the  cause  of  cordiality,  had  already 
vanished. 

To  what  extent  foreigners  had  been  kept  out  of  the 
Spanish  South  American  dominions  may  be  gathered 
from  a  census  taken  in  Chile  in  1788.  Out  of  four  hun- 
dred thousand  inhabitants  only  seventy-nine  were  given 
in  as  foreigners.  Of  these,  representing  thirteen  na- 
tionalities, there  were  only  three  who  were  not  Roman 
Catholics. 

It  is  likely  enough  that  this  list  was  not  a  complete 
one.  It  stands  to  reason  that  many  complacent  local 
officials  would  not  care  to  have  it  on  record  that  they 
were  harboring  too  liberal  a  number  of  these  strangers 
who  were  so  unpopular  with  the  highest  authorities. 
And  juggling  with  figures  was  so  simple  a  matter  under 
the  Spanish  Empire  that  it  had  become  almost  a  hobby 
on  the  part  of  nearly  every  official,  however  straitlaced 
he  might  have  been  in  other  respects !  Even  so,  it  may 
be  taken  for  granted  that  the  number  of  strangers  in 
Chile  and  elsewhere  at  that  period  were  extraordinarily 
limited. 

If  this  state  of  affairs  obtained  at  so  late  a  date  as  the 
end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  it  may  be  imagined  how 


104     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

much  more  severe  were  the  conditions  which  applied  in 
the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries.  In  what  might 
be  termed  the  mid-colonial  period  of  South  America, 
when,  Portugal  having  freed  herself  in  Europe  from  the 
yoke  of  Spain,  the  great  colony  of  Brazil  reverted  to  the 
mother  country,  it  might  well  have  been  expected  that  an 
alteration  of  policy  would  occur  in  this  portion  of  the 
continent.  But  this  was  not  so.  The  germ  of  the  Span- 
ish colonial  theory  had  eaten  too  deeply  into  the  con- 
temporary Portuguese  mind  to  be  lightly  eradicated. 

Thus  when  the  affairs  of  Brazil  came  again  to  be  ad- 
ministered by  the  Portuguese,  the  foreigner  who  spread 
his  sails  in  anxious  haste  to  make  the  ports  of  the  new 
Brazil  met  with  an  abrupt  shock  of  disillusion.  If  the 
authorities  were  in  a  complacent  mood,  his  ship  might  be 
allowed  to  anchor  in  one  of  the  harbors  and  a  certain 
amount  of  very  guarded  intercourse  might  be  permitted. 
But  all  trips  from  the  ship  to  the  shore  were  rigidly  dis- 
couraged, and  this  policy  was  applied  even  to  those  old 
national  friends,  the  British.  No  party  of  foreigners,  in 
fact,  was  allowed  to  land  unless  under  the  close  and  in- 
cessant supervision  of  an  armed  guard — a  most  unsatis- 
factory method  of  drinking  in  first  impressions  of  a 
strange  country! 

It  was  not,  indeed,  until  the  Spanish  colonies  became 
republics,  and  Brazil  a  monarchy,  that  was  brought  about 
the  removal  of  the  barriers  that  had  been  set  up  in  the 
face  of  the  foreigner.  Even  for  some  decades  after  the 
independence  of  the  continent  had  been  achieved,  the  old 
theory  of  the  exclusion  of  the  foreigner  persisted  in  one 
or  two  remote  regions,  notably  in  Paraguay. 

The  actual  starting-point  of  the  careers  of  the  Eng- 
lishmen in  the  mainland  of  South  America  is,  of  course, 
somewhat  vague  and  difficult  to  determine.  We  have  al- 
ready referred  to  those  who  accompanied  Pizarro  and 
Pedro  de  Mendoza.  They  doubtless  played  their  part 
manfully,  but  not  in  a  fashion  that  left  a  permanent  rec- 


EARLY  BRITISH  ADVENTURERS  105 

ord  behind  them.  The  earliest  of  the  English  who 
achieved  this  were  Jesuits.  It  is  known  that  there  were 
several  English  priests  at  Cordoba,  among  them  being 
Thomas  Falconer  and  Thomas  Brown.  At  least  one 
saint  of  the  early  Brazilian  Church — or  of  the  company 
of  Jesuits  in  Brazil — can  claim  English  birth.  It  ap- 
pears that  one  of  the  most  conscientious  self-scourgers 
and  wrestlers  with  the  devil  among  the  Jesuits  in  Brazil, 
was  actually  born  in  London  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Eliza- 
beth. This  was  the  friar  Joao  d 'Almeida,  whose  original 
name  was  John  Martin,  and  who  is  said  to  have  been  kid- 
napped by  a  Portuguese  merchant  when  he  was  ten  years 
of  age.  Seven  years  after  this  he  was  taken  out  to  Brazil, 
and  entered  the  company  of  Jesuits,  his  superior  being 
the  famous  Father  Anchieta. 

The  great  repute  for  sanctity  of  which  Joao  d 'Almeida 
soon  became  possessed  was  not  lightly  won.  It  is  diffi- 
cult to  conceive  a  soul  that  could  have  been  a  deeper 
enemy  of  its  imprisoning  flesh.  Indeed,  the  only  worldly 
possessions  in  which  he  took  the  least  pride  were  the  in- 
struments with  which  he  was  accustomed  to  chastise  that 
despised  flesh  of  his.  These  made  up  an  elaborate  col- 
lection. There  was  every  possible  variety  of  scourge, 
from  whipcord  to  wire ;  there  were  hair  shirts,  and  many 
varieties  of  the  most  satisfactorily  painful  wire  cilices; 
there  were  sharp  pebbles  and  hard  grains  of  maize  such  as 
would  promote  the  most  comfortable  of  shoes  from  their 
state  of  ease  to  perdition,  and  then  there  were  the  nat- 
ural and  welcome  allies  of  the  spirit  in  the  shape  of  mos- 
quitos,  fleas,  and  similar  cordial  assistants  in  the  cam- 
paign against  the  cursed  matter.  And  all  this  is  to  say 
nothing  of  the  fastings  carried  out  with  so  bitter  a  de- 
termination that  the  fainting  body  stumbled  while  the 
spirit  soared! 

Notwithstanding  their  mutual  hatred,  the  spirit  and 
body  of  this  remarkable  man  clung  together  for  no  less 
than  eighty-two  years.     At  least  let  us  say  this  of  him, 


106     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

that,  though  his  particular  methods  of  attaining  to  a 
righteous  state  were  medieval  and  crude,  they  had  the 
merits  of  an  undoubted  sincerity  and  of  the  fullest  faith. 
It  is  easier  to  smile  at  the  methods  of  Friar  Joao  d 'Al- 
meida than  to  test  them ! 

The  friar  was  not  without  honor  in  his  own  community. 
The  veneration  with  which  he  was  regarded  increased 
steadily  during  his  lifetime,  until  it  had  attained  to  a 
pitch  that,  at  the  time  of  his  last  and  fatal  illness,  con- 
vulsed Rio  de  Janeiro  and  all  the  surrounding  country 
with  grief,  and  every  possible  object  that  could  be  treas- 
ured as  a  relic  of  the  saintly  man  was  carefully  pre- 
served. 

A  far  more  generally  known  Jesuit  priest  of  British 
birth  was  Father  Thomas  Fields — or  Tomas  Filds,  as  the 
Spanish  chroniclers  record  the  name.  This  was  an  Irish 
Jesuit,  one  of  the  foremost  in  strenuous  endeavor  of  a 
most  notable  company,  who  sailed  out  from  Europe  in 
1587  in  order  to  assist  in  the  great  mission  work  which 
had  been  begun  among  the  Indians  of  Paraguay. 

According  to  the  Jesuit  writers.  Fathers  Charlevoix 
and  Del  Techo,  the  vessel  in  which  this  small  company  of 
Jesuits  was  sailing  to  South  America  was  captured  by 
an  English  bucaneer  when  off  the  mouth  of  the  river 
Plate.  It  is  said  that  the  fathers  were  brutally  treated 
by  the  crew  of  the  vessel  which  captured  them,  and  it  is 
possible  enough  that  they  did  suffer  considerably  at  the 
hands  of  some  rough  sea-dogs.  At  the  same  time,  the 
most  orthodox  of  modern  Jesuits  will  scarcely  deny  that 
these  two  old  historians  have  strained  both  their  minds 
and  pens  just  a  little  in  their  enthusiastic  haste  to  point 
a  moral! 

It  appears  that,  not  content  with  maltreating  the  per- 
sons of  their  captives,  the  bucaneers  took  to  scattering 
some  treasured  relics  that  the  missionaries  bore  with 
them.  This  was  more  than  the  Jesuit  fathers  could  suf- 
fer, and  a  struggle  was  brought  about  by  their  endeavors 


EARLY  BRITISH  ADVENTURERS  107 

to  save  the  relics.  Enraged,  the  bucaneers  flung  Father 
Ortega,  one  of  the  Jesuits,  overboard,  and  he  was  only 
rescued  after  some  hesitation.  But  then  fell  the  venge- 
ance which  preserved  the  missionaries  from  further  ill- 
treatment.  With  an  extraordinary  rapidity  the  chief 
blasphemer  developed  a  malignant  boil  in  his  leg.  So 
rapidly  did  the  growth  spread  that,  although  his  com- 
panions amputated  his  leg,  it  was  not  in  time,  and  the 
miserable  man  died  in  great  agony  within  twenty-four 
hours. 

In  the  end  Father  Fields  and  his  companions  arrived 
safely  in  Paraguay,  and  the  labors  of  Fields  among  the 
Indians — his  interminable  wanderings  through  forest, 
swamp,  and  lagoon  in  search  of  fresh  converts  to  bap- 
tize— are  set  down  among  the  most  prominent  of  those  in- 
tensely interesting  records  which  deal  with  the  work  of 
the  Jesuit  missions. 

In  the  eighteenth  century  there  were  undoubtedly  many 
more  British  friars,  already  domiciled  in  Spain  or  Portu- 
gal, who  sailed  in  Iberian  vessels  to  South  America.  But 
very  few  of  these  left  records  behind  them.  Now  and 
again  a  corner  of  the  veil  is  lifted,  and  we  are  given  a 
glimpse  of  the  stately  departure  of  the  fleet  and  of  the 
galleons,  of  the  ceremonies,  rites,  and  feastings,  and  of 
the  occasional  passage  in  a  cock-boat  across  the  shining 
blue  waters  from  one  vessel  to  another.  We  learn,  too, 
from  English  passengers  how,  on  the  day  dedicated  to 
Saint  Ignatius,  voyaging  Jesuits  would  celebrate  a  great 
feast,  and  would  march  in  procession  about  a  ship  hung 
with  white  linen  and  flags,  whose  masts  were  decorated 
with  the  Jesuit  arms  and  with  pictures  of  Saint  Ignatius, 
while  the  cannon  roared  their  salutes,  and  at  night  the 
rigging  glowed  with  lanterns,  and  flashed  and  banged  with 
fireworks. 

Having  dealt  with  this  considerable  number  of  saintly 
figures,  we  may  now  pay  some  passing  attention  to  a 
few  sinners — not  that  the  slave  traders  of  the  eighteenth 


108     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

century  were  considered  a  whit  more  sinful  than  folk 
who  dealt  in  objects  other  than  human. 

In  the  eighteenth  century,  as  in  Richard  Hawkins'  day, 
a  shipload  of  black  labor-instruments  was  always  wel- 
come. British  vessels  obtained  special  privileges  when 
engaged  in  this  trade,  and  their  owners  possessed  slave 
establishments  of  their  own  in  Buenos  Aires,  where  the 
original  building  to  house  slaves  was  constructed  in  1702 
by  an  English  company  that  had  secured  a  monopoly  for 
the  importation  of  Negroes.  In  1713  the  Treaty  of 
Utrecht  provided  some  notable  concessions  to  the  English. 
In  addition  to  the  privilege  of  trading  at  the  famous  fairs 
of  Portobello  (at  which  the  goods,  with  the  exception  of 
the  large  amounts  smuggled,  were  bought  to  supply  the 
whole  of  Latin  America)  they  were  conceded  the  right  of 
slave-dealing  in  the  whole  of  Spanish  America. 

Some  years  later,  when  war  broke  out  between  Eng- 
land and  Spain,  Zavala,  the  governor  of  Buenos  Aires, 
seized  the  English  slave-trading  station,  which  was  rees- 
tablished at  the  end  of  a  short  war.  During  this  period 
many  English  vessels  visited  the  port  of  Colonia  for 
smuggling  purposes. 

The  slave-trading  concession  was  subsequently  with- 
drawn, but  was  renewed  again  in  1784  and  in  1791,  when 
ships  that  brought  slaves  were  permitted  to  load  the  prod- 
uce of  the  country  for  their  return  voyage.  This  latter 
somewhat  startling  innovation  caused  much  tribulation 
to  the  Spanish  merchants,  who  had  until  then  enjoyed  the 
monopoly  of  these  shipments,  and  when  an  English  vessel 
was  loading  with  hides  we  find  them  protesting  vigor- 
ously against  the  ''fatal  consequences  which  must  ensue 
to  the  national  commerce"!  Small  wonder  that  the 
safety-valve  of  smuggling  flourished !  The  concession  was 
subsequently  added  of  carrying  away  the  produce  of  the 
country  in  the  vessels  that  had  brought  slaves.  This 
privilege  was  resented  by  the  more  reactionary  of  the 
officials,  who  endeavored  to  put  a  stop  to  it  toward  the  end 


EARLY  BRITISH  ADVENTURERS  109 

of  the  eighteenth  century,  an  attempt  that  had  little  effect 
beyond  increasing  the  smuggling  traffic,  which  had  from 
the  beginning  acted  as  the  safety-valve  of  South  Amer- 
ican commerce. 

In  addition  to  the  reputable  British  who  found  them- 
selves in  the  South  American  Iberian  colonies  at  this 
period,  there  were  a  certain  number  of  shadier  specimens 
of  that  nationality  who  had  taken  refuge  in  some  parts 
of  the  Southern  continent.  Decidedly  no  shelter  could  be 
more  certain  than  that  of  the  South  American  soil  for 
the  spendthrift  or  criminal  of  a  certain  standing  and  of 
sufficient  means  to  make  his  way  thither. 

Having  changed  his  religion,  he  would  be  received  with 
open  arms  by  people,  whose  views,  whatever  else  they 
might  have  been,  were  at  all  events  sincere  and  enthusi- 
astic. Then,  having  learned  to  suck  up  Yerba  Mate  in- 
stead of  sipping  his  dish  of  China  tea,  and  to  drink  red 
Spanish  wine  instead  of  his  claret,  yellow  Jerez,  or  purple 
port,  he  would  accustom  himself  to  the  life  of  the  new 
continent,  and  become  as  dead  as  drying  bones  to  the 
old. 

In  Spanish  America  the  most  welcome  of  all  the  set- 
tlers who  arrived  from  overseas  during  the  last  few  de- 
cades of  the  colonial  period  were  the  Irish.  Their  skill 
in  curing  meat  had  brought  them  considerable  reputation 
among  the  colonials.  This  and  the  fact  that  their  re- 
ligion was  Roman  Catholic  caused  them  to  receive  spe- 
cial privileges,  and  they  had  established  themselves  in 
considerable  numbers  in  Argentina  before  the  War  of 
Liberation. 

It  may  be  remarked  here  that  an  Irish  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  in  the  Spanish  service,  Don  Carlos  Morphi,  was 
governor  of  Paraguay  in  1766.  He  is  said  to  have  been 
of  considerable  assistance  to  the  Jesuits  in  the  trials  at- 
tending their  expulsion. 

Later,  the  Irish  took  up  the  occupation  of  shepherds, 
and — seeing  that  their  foreign  birth  caused  them  to  be 


110     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

immune  from  the  military  duties  to  which  the  others  were 
liable — their  services  were  in  great  request.  A  species 
of  partnership  was  usually  entered  into  between  the  Irish- 
man and  the  South  American.  The  former  would  bring 
into  play  his  labor  and  his  shepherd's  knowledge;  the 
latter  would  provide  the  livestock  and  the  land.  By 
this  arrangement  was  laid  the  foundation  of  many  a 
South-American — as  well  as  an  Irish-South-American — 
fortune  that  has  to  be  counted  in  millions  of  pounds 
sterling  to-day. 

Infinitely  the  most  salient  figure  among  the  Britons  of 
colonial  South  America  is  that  of  Ambrose  O'Higgins, 
the  bare-footed  youngster  of  the  county  Meath  tenant 
farmer,  who  rose  to  be  viceroy  of  Peru.  The  most  clearly 
O'Higgins 's  career  is  regarded,  the  more  astonishing  it 
appears.  The  mounting  force  of  such  men  as — leaving 
the  medievals  and  ancients  out  of  the  question  for  want 
of  space! — Clive,  Napoleon,  and  Garfield  is  sufficiently 
bewildering  to  contemplate.  But  the  difficulties  in  the 
path  of  these  were  as  molehills  compared  with  the  moun- 
tains that  O'Higgins  had  to  surmount. 

Of  these.  Napoleon's  career  is  that  which,  for  one  rea- 
son only,  most  nearly  approaches  that  of  the  ponderous 
viceroy  whose  boyhood  was  spent  in  running  errands  at 
Dangan  Castle.  But,  although  the  Corsican  in  his  early 
youth  was  not  over-familiar  with  the  language  of  his 
future  empire,  he  was  born,  and  his  deeds  were  achieved, 
in  the  midst  of  his  fellow  subjects  of  France. 

O'Higgins  lacked  even  this  commonplace  advantage. 
It  is  true  that  he  had  an  ecclesiastical  uncle  in  Spain  who 
possessed  a  certain  amount  of  influence — sufficient  at  all 
events  to  offer  the  young  nephew  who  had  come  out  to 
him  from  Ireland,  seemingly  without  a  vocation  for  the 
priesthood,  the  opportunity  of  proceeding  to  the  Spanish 
South  American  colonies  as  a  peddler. 

Conceive,  if  you  can,  the  gap  between  the  foreign  and 
friendless  young  hawker,  landing  on  the  strange  alluvial 


EARLY  BRITISH  ADVENTURERS  111 

flats  of  Buenos  Aires,  and  the  Viceroy  of  Peru — the 
holder  of  an  office  coveted  by  every  one  of  those  grandees 
of  Spain  who  were  privileged  to  remain  with  heads  cov- 
ered in  the  presence  of  the  Emperor  himself — a  post 
which  had  scarcely  ever  been  held  by  the  most  eminent 
even  of  the  Spanish  colonials,  and  which  required  the 
proudest  of  quarterings  as  well  as  a  European  reputation 
for  statesmanship !  For  in  no  capital  were  the  formali- 
ties of  family  and  the  privileges  of  blood  more  rigidly  in- 
sisted on  than  in  the  severe  and  unbending  court  of  Spain. 

Yet  the  man  who  struggled  across  the  Andes  to  Chile 
and  Peru,  and  set  up  his  humble  stall  in  the  shade  of 
the  cathedral  at  Lima,  bridged  this  mighty  gap,  and  won 
his  way  to  the  throne  of  the  most  important  vice-royalty 
in  the  world. 

The  main  features  of  Ambrose  O'Higgins's  life  in 
Spanish  South  America  are  well  enough  known.  Wan- 
dering over  the  immense  tracts  of  country  from  Vene- 
zuela in  the  north  downwards  to  Central  Chile,  in  order 
to  dispose  of  his  wares,  it  was  this  strenuous  and  itin- 
erant life  which  gave  him  that  wide  topographical  knowl- 
edge which  was  to  serve  him  so  well  in  his  later  official 
existence. 

O'Higgins  prospered  in  his  commercial  life,  and,  hav- 
ing made  sufficient  money  for  his  needs,  he  offered  his 
services  to  the  Chilean  Government  for  the  surveying  of 
roads  and  engineering  work  in  the  Andes  and  in  the 
South.  It  speaks  well  for  the  broadmindedness  of  the 
Chilean  colonial  authorities  that  they  accepted  his  offer. 
They  had  no  cause  to  regret  this,  and  both  traveling  men 
and  beasts  rapidly  found  cause  to  congratulate  them- 
selves on  O'Higgins 's  work.  It  is  an  extraordinary  ex- 
ample of  the  workings  of  fate  that  at  this  early  period 
of  his  official  career  O'Higgins,  serving  the  royal  inter- 
est, caused  those  much-needed  shelter  huts  to  be  erected 
in  the  Andes  passes — refuges  which  some  fifty  years 
later,  after  the  Chilean  defeat  of  Ramcagua,  assisted  his 


112     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

republican  son  and  his  followers  to  make  their  escape 
from  the  pursuing  royal  forces ! 

Shortly  after  this  O'Higgins  obtained  a  commission  in 
the  Spanish  Eoyal  Engineers,  and  from  that  point  his 
promotion  was  assured  and  rapid. 

A  point  to  be  noticed  in  O'Higgins'  remarkable  life  is 
that  he  was  no  less  than  forty  years  of  age  when  he  en- 
tered the  Spanish  colonial  service.  Middle-aged,  he  had 
already  retired  from  one  career,  and,  according  to  the 
ordinary  ethics  of  life,  there  was  no  reason  why  he  should 
not  have  sat  down  in  peace  for  the  rest  of  his  life  in  the 
shade  of  his  poplar  and  orange  trees,  surrounded  by  his 
vineyards  and  roses,  and  the  countless  flowers  and  fruits 
of  the  beautiful  Chilean  valleys. 

But  O'Higgins  never  seems  to  have  contemplated  any 
such  retirement.  He  had  other  views.  His  mercantile 
career  had  led  him  to  the  point  at  which  a  young  Spaniard 
enjoying  reasonable  influence  might  enter  the  Govern- 
ment with  all  his  ambitions  and  ideals  shining  before  him 
at  their  highest  and  freshest.  O'Higgins  flung  away  the 
cares  and  details  of  his  past,  and  entered  the  arena, 
handicapped  by  some  twenty  years.  It  would  be  an  un- 
derstatement to  say  that  he  caught  up  with  the  others 
hand  over  fist:  from  that  moment  his  career  was  mete- 
oric ! 

Advancing  from  rank  to  rank,  he  first  defeated  the 
fiery  Araucanian  Indians,  and  then  won  the  deep  esteem 
of  those  untamable  warriors.  In  1777  he  obtained  his 
colonelcy,  and  shortly  after  he  was  made  brigadier-gen- 
eral. Among  his  achievements  at  this  period  was  the 
founding  of  the  town  of  Balenar,  a  name  which  he  gave 
to  it  in  honor  of  his  Irish  birthplace,  Ballinary.  He  him- 
self retained  close  and  affectionate  connection  with  this 
name  throughout;  for  when  he  was  created  a  count  he 
chose  the  style  of  Balenar  for  his  title. 

The  astounding  velocity  of  0  'Higgins  's  upward  career 
was  now  increased.    Reaching  the  rank  of  major-general 


EARLY  BRITISH  ADVENTURERS  113 

in  1788,  he  was  created  Marquis  of  Osorno,  and  became 
Captain-General  of  Chile  in  1792,  while  in  1794  he  re- 
ceived a  further  military  step  to  the  grade  of  lieutenant- 
general. 

O'Higgins  was  now  Governor  of  Chile,  and  his  great 
abilities  began  to  find  their  full  scope.  His  most  notable 
work  was  in  connection  with  administrative  reform,  the 
abolition  of  slavery,  the  founding  of  towns,  the  construc- 
tion of  roads  and  harbors,  and  other  progressive  meas- 
ures of  the  kind. 

Occasionally  O'Higgins 's  liberal  policy  was  startling 
in  its  effects,  and  brought  him  into  conflict  with  his  su- 
perior, the  mighty  Viceroy  of  Peru.  But  0  'Higgins  per- 
sisted in  his  views,  and  boldly  argued  with  the  King  of 
Spain  himself,  until  the  latter,  yielding  to  the  sound  com- 
monsense  of  0 'Higgins 's  point  of  view,  ended  by  accord- 
ing him  his  warm  support. 

The  crowning  acknowledgment  of  the  great  Irishman's 
services  occurred  in  1796,  when  Ambrose  O'Higgins  was 
made  Viceroy  of  Peru.  This  post — the  most  coveted  and 
exalted  beneath  those  of  actual  royalty  throughout  the 
world — he  held  with  great  honor  until  his  death  in  1801 
at  the  age  of  eighty-one.  There  is  a  portrait  in  existence 
of  Ambrose  O'Higgins,  when  Governor  of  Chile,  that 
seems  to  me  to  reveal  most  admirably  the  physiognomy 
of  the  greatest  British  subject  who  ever  set  foot  on 
South  American  soil.  The  countenance  is  essentially  Hi- 
bernian :  the  jaw  is  massive ;  the  mouth  is  firm,  and  the 
eyes  and  the  expression  of  the  face  are  characteristically 
benevolent. 

There  are  probably  more  varied  lessons  to  be  learned 
from  the  career  of  Ambrose  O'Higgins  than  from  those 
of  the  majority  of  great  men.  For  one  thing,  it  would 
seem  to  prove  that  the  wiser  springs  of  human  nature  are 
not  necessarily  tainted  to  their  depths  by  a  mistaken 
form  of  government.  The  errors  of  the  Spanish  colonial 
policy  are  patent,  and  none  attempt  to  deny  that  the 


114     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

general  Spanish  administration  of  the  period  was  cor- 
rupt to  a  degree.  Yet  it  was  the  officials  brought  up  in 
so  unsatisfactory  a  school  who  freely  recognized  Am- 
brose O'Higgins's  merits,  and  who  assisted  the  man  with- 
out court  influence  to  that  exalted  place  where  he  could 
best  display  his  talents.  This  honest  appreciation,  more- 
over, extended  from  the  lower  ranks  to  the  highest.  The 
King  of  Spain  himself  had  corresponded  with,  argued 
with,  and  praised  his  brilliant  viceroy.  But  he  had  never 
set  eyes  on  him,  nor  listened  to  the  brogue-tinged  Span- 
ish of  the  chief  dignitary  of  his  South  American  do- 
minions. O'Higgins'  case  was  that  of  sheer  talent  tri- 
umphant. Judging  from  the  general  conception  of  Span- 
ish colonial  rule,  it  may  have  been  an  anomaly.  In  any 
case  it  affords  a  warning  against  the  dangerous  vice  of 
over-generalization ! 

I  have  referred  to  Ambrose  0  'Higgins  as  the  greatest 
British  subject  who  ever  set  foot  on  South  American 
soil,  and  this  distinction  is  freely  admitted  on  all  hands. 
But  I  would  go  beyond  this.  To  my  mind  the  name  of 
0 'Higgins  is  one  of  the  greatest  which  has  ever  shone 
out  of  the  entire  history  of  South  America.  It  is  true 
that  it  first  appears  there  a  generation  or  so  before  such 
compelling  patronymics  as  Bolivar,  San  Martin,  and  those 
others  which  the  stress  of  the  War  of  Independence  raised 
high  above  the  masses  of  the  populace. 

But  the  name  of  0 'Higgins  has  something  which  these 
others  lack.  It  is,  in  fact,  unique.  It  has  a  double  luster ; 
because  it  was  borne  by  two  generations  with  an  almost 
equal  brilliancy.  It  is  seldom  that  a  genius  such  as  Am- 
brose 0 'Higgins  the  father,  the  greatest  viceroy  of  roy- 
alist Spanish  America,  bears  a  man  such  as  Bernardo 
0 'Higgins  the  son,  first  chief  of  the  New  Republic  which 
sprang  up  from  the  ashes  of  his  dead  father's  govern- 
ment. 

In  South  American  opinion  the  son  usually  ranks  as  the 
greater  of  the  pair.    I  think  that  the  chief  reason  for 


EARLY  BRITISH  ADVENTURERS  115 

this  is  that  Don  Bernardo  stands  for  the  triumph  of  the 
republican  principles.  But  for  this  very  natural  wave 
of  sentiment,  I  think  that  the  verdict  would  be  reversed. 

It  is  true  that  Bernardo  0  'Higgins  did  not  begin  where 
his  father  left  off.  On  the  contrary,  the  illegitimate  and 
somewhat  neglected  son  of  the  powerful  viceroy  was  left 
to  carve  out  for  himself  the  most  important  step  in  his 
career — a  fact  which  makes  the  double  luster  all  the  more 
brilliant.  But  at  all  events  he  had  his  father's  great 
name  at  his  back,  and  his  manhood's  career  was  begun 
among  kindred  people  whose  customs  and  language  were 
his.  His  father  had  enjoyed  no  such  advantages  as 
these. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  crucial  politics,  Bernardo 
0 'Higgins  may  have  played  the  more  important  part; 
but  from  the  point  of  view  of  actual  achievement  it  seems 
to  me  that  the  palm  must  go  to  the  father — to  Ambrose 
0 'Higgins,  who  governed  a  country  a  dozen  times  larger 
than  the  island  where  he  had  been  born  a  peasant's 
child ! 


CHAPTER  VI 

SOME   EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY   BRITISH   VOYAGES   TO   SOUTH 

AMERICA 

Commodore  Anson's  Voyage — Aims  of  the  expedition — Composition  of  the 
squadron — Patients  of  Chelsea  hospital  deemed  an  efficient  force  of  ma- 
rines by  the  authorities — Official  response  to  protests — Scene  at  the 
embarkation  of  the  unfortunate  invalid  veterans — The  force  strength- 
ened by  recruits — The  squadron  sets  sail  on  the  18th  of  September,  1740 
— Narrowly  misses  falling  in  with  a  Spanish  fleet  off  the  island  of 
Madeira — Subsequent  calamities  which  befel  Admiral  Pizarro's  vessels 
— Anson's  vessels  arrive  at  Santa  Catharina,  in  Brazil — Conduct  of  the 
Portuguese  governor — His  greed  and  hostility — Anson,  proceeding  to 
the  south,  arrives  at  the  harbor  of  San  Julian — Foul  weather  separates 
the  squadron — Shipwreck  of  the  Wager — Subsequent  adventures  of  the 
lost  vessel's  officers  and  crew — Fate  of  the  mutineers — The  Centurion 
with  a  diminished  and  enfeebled  crew  arrives  at  the  island  of  Juan 
Fernandez — The  ravages  of  scurvy — Within  the  next  two  months  arrive 
at  long  intervals  the  Tryall,  Gloucester,  and  Anna  Pink,  all  similarly 
afflicted — Appalling  death  roll  of  the  squadron — Rest  and  recuperation 
at  Juan  de  Fernandez — Species  of  fish  obtained — Anson  plants  vege- 
tables and  fruits — The  island  dogs — Agents  introduced  by  the  Spaniards 
for  the  destruction  of  the  goats — Survivors  of  these  latter — The  Cen- 
turion, Gloucester,  and  Tryall  set  sail  with  little  more  than  a  third  of 
their  original  crews — The  squadron  begins  its  aggressions  on  the  Pacific 
coast — Chivalry  displayed  by  Anson  toward  his  prisoners — How  this 
was  appreciated  by  the  Spaniards  of  both  sexes — Incidents  at  the  cap- 
ture of  Paita — ^Seamen's  humor — Various  prizes — After  securing  much 
booty  Anson  lies  in  wait  for  the  Manila  galleon — Abandonment  and 
burning  of  the  now  imsea worthy  Gloucester — The  Centurion  after  pro- 
longed cruising  captures  the  Manila  galleon,  and  immense  treasure — 
She  returns  home  after  a  cruise  of  nearly  four  years — A  tale  of  Captain 
Campbell,  one  of  Anson's  officers — Commodore  Byron's  voyage  in  the 
Dolphin,  accompanied  by  the  Tamar — Intercourse  with  the  Patagonian 
Indians — Some  native  ideas  of  generosity — Embarrassing  demonstra- 
tions of  friendship — Captain  Wallis's  voyage  in  the  Dolphin,  accom- 
panied by  the  Sicallow — An  incident  at  Madeira — Description  of  the  In- 
dians within  the  Straits  of  Magellan — Discovery  of  Pitcairn's  Island — 
Captain  Cook's  voyage  in  the  Endeavour — Some  incidents  on  the  South 
American  coast — Spanish  curiosity  concerning  his  discoveries  in  the 
Pacific  Ocean — Length  to  which  the  seclusion  of  the  Spanish  colonies 

116 


EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY  BRITISH  VOYAGES     117 

was  carried — An  instance  affecting  a  United  States  whaler — Capture  of 
the  missionary  ship  Duff — Mutiny  of  the  convicts  of  the  Lady  Shore — 
Missionaries  and  convicts  meet  at  Montevideo — The  convicts'  advances 
rejected — Services  subsequently  rendered  by  these  to  the  British  sol- 
diers of  the  river  Plate  expeditionary  force — The  cruise  of  H.M.S. 
Cornuallis. 

IN  the  year  1740  there  were  circumstances  connected 
with  the  manning  and  equipment  of  a  British  fleet 
when  commissioning  for  a  long  cruise  that  might 
well  try  the  patience  of  the  most  reasonable  commander. 
This  Commodore  Anson  found  out  to  his  cost  when  pre- 
paring to  beard  the  power  of  Spain  in  her  South  Amer- 
ican colonies. 

The  task  before  him  was  to  sail  round  South  America, 
and,  after  harrying  the  Pacific  coast,  to  attack  Panama, 
which  fortress,  it  was  planned,  should  be  approached  at 
the  same  time  from  the  Atlantic  by  a  second,  and  power- 
ful, British  expedition  which  was  to  land  at  the  isthmus 
and  advance  along  Sir  Henry  Morgan's  road,  thus  re- 
peating history  in  a  more  respectable  fashion ! 

As  related  by  Richard  Walter,  the  chaplain  of  the  Cen- 
turion, the  squadron  consisted  of  five  men  of  war,  a  sloop 
of  war,  and  two  victualing  ships. 

They  were  the  Centurion  of  sixty  guns,  four  hundred 
men,  George  Anson,  commander;  the  Gloucester  of  fifty 
guns,  three  hundred  men,  Richard  Norris,  commander; 
the  Severn  of  fifty  guns,  three  hundred  men,  the  Honor- 
able Edward  Legg,  commander ;  the  Pearl  of  forty  guns, 
two  hundred  and  fifty  men,  Matthew  Mitchell,  com- 
mander; the  Wager  of  twenty-eight  guns,  one  hundred 
and  sixty  men,  Dandy  Kidd,  commander ;  and  the  Try  all 
sloop  of  eight  guns,  one  hundred  men,  the  Honorable 
John  Murray,  commander:  the  two  victualers  were 
Pinks,  the  largest  of  about  four  hundred,  and  the  other  of 
about  two  hundred  tons  burthen. 

After  this  Mr.  Walter  lets  loose  a  round  shot  of  satire, 
which  the  circumstances  amply  justified.  ''Besides  the 
complement  of  men  borne  by  the  above-mentioned  ships 


118     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

as  their  crews,"  he  adds,  'Hhere  were  embarked  on  board 
the  squadron  about  four  hundred  and  seventy  invalids 
and  marines  under  the  denomination  of  land-forces.  .  .  ." 

These  "invalids  and  marines,"  as  a  matter  of  fact,  had 
comprised  as  bitter  a  pill  as  it  was  possible  for  poor  un- 
desirable humanity  to  provide  for  the  chastening  of  a 
naval  commander's  spirit.  Instead  of  a  smart  regiment 
of  foot  and  three  independent  companies  of  a  hundred 
men  each  such  as  had  been  promised  for  the  expedition 
by  the  authorities,  these  latter  in  the  end  satisfied  their 
consciences  by  collecting  five  hundred  out-patients  of 
Chelsea  hospital — men  who,  from  their  age,  wounds,  or 
other  infirmities,  were  incapable  of  serving  further  in 
marching  regiments!  Anson  was  aghast  at  the  idea  of 
having  this  physical  refuse  of  humanity  shot  upon  his 
ships,  and  his  protest  received  the  support  of  Sir  Charles 
Wager.  But  the  latter  received  a  stunning  broadside  of 
crass  officialdom!  "He  was  told,  that  persons,  who  were 
supposed  to  be  better  judges  of  soldiers  than  he  or  Mr. 
Anson,  thought  them  the  properest  men  that  could  be 
employed  on  this  occasion." 

The  description  of  these  "properest"  men  is  sufficient 
to  take  one's  breath  away,  even  after  this  lapse  of  nearly 
two  centuries: 

"But,  instead  of  five  hundred,  there  came  on  board 
no  more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty-nine:  for  all  those 
who  had  limbs  and  strength  to  walk  out  of  Portsmouth 
deserted,  leaving  behind  them  only  such  as  were  literally 
invalids,  most  of  them  being  sixty  years  of  age,  and  some 
of  them  upwards  of  seventy.  Indeed,  it  is  difficult  to 
conceive  a  more  moving  scene  than  the  embarcation  of 
these  unhappy  veterans.  ..." 

One  can  picture  Anson,  surveying  from  his  quarter- 
deck the  pitiful  sexagenarian  stream,  whose  weak  and 
palsied  limbs  were  intended  by  the  admiralty  judges  of 
"properest"  men  to  make  some  shift  at  hearty  and 
rollicking  movements!    One  can  imagine,  too,  the  start- 


EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY  BRITISH  VOYAGES      119 

ing  eyes  and  fallen  jaw  of  Colonel  Cracherode,  who  had 
come  aboard  to  take  up  direct  command  of  this  army  of 
unsound  Methusalehs! 

At  the  last  moment  two  hundred  and  ten  of  the  rawest 
recruits  were  sent  to  the  squadron  to  take  the  place  of 
the  enterprising  invalids  who  had  sufficient  strenglh  to 
drag  their  deserting  limbs  away.  None  of  these  recruits 
had  yet  learned  to  fire  a  musket,  but  they  had  at  least  the 
strength  to  hold  a  firearm  to  their  shoulder,  which  seemed 
beyond  the  physical  power  of  many  of  the  first  batch! 
Thus  manned,  on  the  18th  of  September,  1740,  Anson's 
squadron  weighed  anchor  from  St.  Helens  in  the  Solent, 
stood  past  the  tree-covered  shore  of  Bembridge,  and  tided 
it  down  the  Channel,  joining  company  for  a  time  with  a 
convoy  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  merchant  vessels  and 
their  escort  of  six  warships.  Presently  this  great  fleet 
bore  off  to  the  west,  leaving  Anson's  ships  to  make  for 
their  first  port  of  call,  Madeira. 

Anson's  voyage  differs  from  almost  every  other  ex- 
pedition of  the  kind,  before  or  since,  in  that  not  only 
were  the  Spaniards  well  acquainted  with  its  objects  and 
destination,  but  they  had  actually  fitted  out  a  squadron 
of  superior  strength,  and  had  sent  it  to  lie  in  Anson's 
path.  So  that  even  when  the  British  fleet  was  halting  at 
one  of  its  earliest  calls  in  the  Bay  of  Funchal  the  Span- 
ish admiral  Pizarro  with  six  ships,  mounting  three  hun- 
dred and  four  guns,  and  manned  by  two  thousand  seven 
hundred  men,  was  cruising  in  the  quite  near  neighbor- 
hood. 

Many  calamities  were  destined  to  befall  both  fleets  be- 
fore they  entered  a  home  port  again.  Of  the  Spanish 
vessels  only  the  flagship,  the  Asia,  was  ever  destined  to 
return  to  Europe,  and  that  only  after  the  most  dreadful 
sufferings  imaginable  on  the  part  of  the  crew:  ''When 
by  the  storms  they  met  with  off  Cape  Horn,  their  con- 
tinuance at  sea  was  prolonged  a  month  or  more  beyond 
their  expectation,  they  were  reduced  to  such  infinite  dis- 


120     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

tress,  that  rats,  when  they  could  be  caught,  were  sold 
for  four  dollars  a-piece ;  and  a  sailor,  who  died  on  board, 
had  his  death  concealed  for  some  days  by  his  brother, 
who,  during  the  time,  lay  in  the  same  hammock  with  the 
corpse,  only  to  receive  the  dead  man's  allowance  of  pro- 
visions." 

After  this  it  is  not  surprising  to  learn  that  when  the 
Spanish  vessels,  abandoning  at  length  the  attempt  to 
round  the  Horn,  put  back  into  the  river  Plate  they  were 
manned  by  less  than  half  of  their  original  crews. 

Curiously  enough,  with  the  exception  of  the  little  Pearl, 
which  once  ran  within  gunshot  of  the  Spanish  squadron 
having  mistaken  it  for  her  own,  the  two  fleets  did  not 
once  set  eyes  on  each  other.  The  British  vessels  pro- 
ceeded steadily  on  their  course,  Pizarro  hovering  about, 
and  perhaps  awaiting  a  more  favorable  opportunity  in 
the  Pacific  Ocean — an  opportunity  which  never  came. 

So,  seeing  that  to  Anson's  squadron  the  Spanish 
vessels  never  materialized  themselves  from  out  of  the 
occasional  vague  wonderings  as  to  their  whereabouts,  we 
may  have  done  with  them  for  the  present,  and  follow 
the  British  sailors. 

Having  taken  in  a  brave  store  of  the  golden,  full- 
bodied  Madeira  wine,  Anson  proceeded  uneventfully  to 
the  southwest,  and  made  his  landfall  on  Sunday,  the 
21st  December  at  the  Island  of  Santa  Catherina  in  the 
south  of  Brazil.  Here  the  squadron  had  some  reason 
to  expect  a  friendly  reception,  if  only  on  account  of  the 
excellent  relations  which  prevailed  between  Great  Britain 
and  Portugal. 

But  Santa  Catharina  proved  disappointing  in  almost 
every  respect.  In  the  first  place,  being  midsummer 
south  of  the  line,  the  spot  abounded  with  venomous 
**muscatos"  and  equally  noxious  sandflies.  Moreover, 
the  governor  of  the  place,  Don  Jose  Sylva  de  Pazz,  as  Mr. 
Walter  terms  him,  was  small  improvement  on  his  insects. 
This  personage,  indeed,  must  have  been  of  an  extraordi- 


EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY  BRITISH  VOYAGES      121 

narily  uncivil  nature.  He  placed  sentinels  everywhere 
to  see  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  place  did  not  trade  with 
the  British  except  at  ridiculous  and  prohibitively  high 
rates. 

This  governor  of  Santa  Catharina,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
did  not  content  himself  with  mere  arrogance  and  in- 
civility. Being  intimately  connected  in  the  smuggling 
trade  with  the  governor  of  the  neighboring  Spanish  ter- 
ritory to  the  south,  he  took  care  to  send  an  express  to 
the  river  Plate,  warning  the  Spanish  authorities  of  the 
arrival  of  the  British  fleet,  together  with  a  full  descrip- 
tion of  its  numbers  and  condition!  It  was,  in  conse- 
quence, with  no  regret  that  the  squadron  sailed  from 
Santa  Catharina  on  the  18th  of  January.  Mr.  Walter 
has  a  note  on  this  point : 

*'The  Island  of  St.  Catherine's  has  been  usually  recom- 
mended by  former  writers,  and  on  their  faith  we  put  in 
there  .  .  .  but  the  treatment  we  met  with,  and  the  small 
store  of  refreshments  we  could  procure  there,  are  suffi- 
cient reasons  to  render  all  ships  for  the  future  cautious 
how  they  trust  themselves  in  the  government  of  Don  Jose 
Sylva  de  Paz.'* 

Sailing  to  the  south,  the  squadron  almost  immediately 
fell  in  with  bad  weather,  an  unusual  summer  phenomenon 
in  those  latitudes.  It  was  an  ominous  introduction,  this, 
to  the  stormy  realms  of  the  Horn  itself,  but  the  sailors, 
knowing  nothing  of  what  was  before  them,  sailed  on 
cheerily  enough  to  the  Bay  of  San  Julian,  the  final  haven 
which  all  Pacific-bound  navigators  sought  before  plung- 
ing into  the  gray  waters  of  the  low  latitudes. 

After  this  the  logs  of  the  squadron  record  a  most  ter- 
rible glut  of  misfortune.  Sailing  southward,  past  the 
entrance  to  the  Magellan  Straits,  and  onwards  between 
the  grim  rocky  shore  of  Staten  Island  and  the  mainland, 
they  had  as  big  a  sailful  of  gales  as  the  staunchest  ship 
could  stand,  and,  all  but  overwhelmed  by  the  giant  seas, 
were  driven  to  the  south  and  to  the  east  far  out  of  their 


122     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

course.  Off  Cape  Noir  the  Severn,  the  Pearl,  and  the 
Wager,  terribly  storm-battered,  parted  company  with 
the  squadron.  The  Severn  and  the  Pearl  succeeded  in 
rounding  the  Horn  again  and  in  sailing  back  to  the 
Brazils,  but  the  Wager  left  her  bones  in  Latitude  47.S.  on 
the  bleak  Chilean  coast. 

The  adventures  of  the  Wager's  crew  are  sufficiently 
noteworthy  in  themselves.  The  mutiny  of  a  number  of 
the  men  afforded  a  grim  introduction  to  what  was  to 
follow.  This  culminated  in  the  shooting  by  the  captain 
of  a  midshipman  named  Cozens,  a  rebellious  ''sea-law- 
yer"— it  may  be  as  well  to  explain  that  a  midshipman  in 
those  days  was  frequently  a  mature  personage,  who  had 
nothing  in  common  with  the  smart  youngsters  turned  out 
from  Dartmouth  to-day. 

In  the  meantime  the  mutineers,  who  formed  by  far 
the  larger  section  of  the  party,  were  busied  in  lengthen- 
ing the  long-boat  and  preparing  it  for  sea.  When  this 
was  all  but  ready  the  shooting  of  Cozens  gave  them  the 
pretext  for  placing  the  captain  under  a  guard,  vowing 
that  they  would  take  him  home  with  them  to  England  to 
be  tried  for  murder.  This  was  merely  a  subterfuge  to 
prevent  their  commander  interfering  with  their  plans, 
and  just  before  they  set  out  they  released  him. 

On  the  thirteenth  of  October,  five  months  after  the 
shipwreck,  the  long-boat,  rigged  as  a  schooner,  and  tow- 
ing the  cutter,  took  its  departure.  The  complement  of 
both  boats  was  nearly  eighty,  so  that  they  were  crammed 
and  loaded  to  the  gunwale  with  men.  As  they  stood 
to  the  south  the  mutineers  had  at  least  the  remorseful 
decency  to  salute  with  three  cheers  the  few  officers  and 
men  who  remained  on  the  beach. 

Perhaps  the  most  extraordinary  part  of  the  whole  af- 
fair is  that  this  long-boat  did  actually  succeed  in  passing 
from  the  Pacific  to  the  Atlantic,  and,  safely  navigating 
the  waters  that  had  wrecked  so  many  tall  ships,  sailed 


EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY  BRITISH  VOYAGES      123 

safely  to  Rio  Grande  in  Brazil.  But  when  that  bat- 
tered little  boat,  three  and  a  half  months  after  it  had 
started,  drove  its  nose  at  length  through  the  sunny  waters 
on  to  the  Brazilian  shore,  out  of  its  eighty  men  only  thirty 
gaunt  beings  sat  within  its  water-worn  planks! 

The  captain  of  the  lost  Wager  and  those  that  remained 
with  him  took  the  barge  and  the  yawl,  and  set  out  to  the 
northward  along  the  Chilean  coast,  in  exactly  the  op- 
posite direction  to  that  taken  by  the  long-boat.  After 
innumerable  disappointments  and  hardships  the  officers 
became  separated  from  their  men,  and  there  were  left  on 
a  desolate  shore  Captain  Cheap,  Mr.  Hamilton  (lieuten- 
ant of  Marines),  the  Honorable  Mr.  Byron  and  Mr.  Camp- 
bell, both  midshipmen,  and  Mr.  Eliot,  the  surgeon.  By 
the  help  of  Indian  guides  they  eventually  reached  the 
Spanish  settlements,  but  only  after  innumerable  further 
adventures  and  hardships.  After  a  year's  detention  in 
Santiago  de  Chile  four  of  their  number  were  permitted 
to  return  to  England. 

The  remaining  officer  was  Mr.  Campbell,  who  *^  having 
changed  his  religion,  whilst  at  St.  Jago,  chose  to  go  back 
to  Buenos  Aires  with  Pizarro  and  his  officers,  with  w^hom 
he  went  afterwards  to  Spain  on  board  the  Asia;  but  hav- 
ing there  failed  in  his  endeavors  to  procure  a  commis- 
sion from  the  Court  of  Spain,  he  returned  to  England, 
and  attempted  to  get  reinstated  in  the  British  Navy. 

But  in  this  endeavor  the  versatile  midshipman  met 
with  no  success. 

We  may  now  return  to  the  main  British  squadron  it- 
self, or,  rather,  to  that  portion  of  it  which  remained  com- 
paratively intact.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  sufferings  of 
the  crews  of  those  ships  which  kept  the  sea  were  very 
little  less  than  those  of  the  wrecked  sailors. 

The  Island  of  Juan  Fernandez — that  rendezvous  of 
the  mariners  of  all  ages — had  been  chosen  as  the  rally- 
ing point,  and  the  condition  in  which  the  vessels  struggled 


124     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

to  its  anchorage  was  remarkable  and  most  pitiable. 
Scurvy  had  broken  out  among  all  the  crews  with  the  most 
terrible  results. 

The  first  to  arrive  was  the  Centurion.  How  labori- 
ously and  lamely  this  ship  came  to  her  anchorage  on  the 
9th  of  June  may  be  imagined,  seeing  that  she  had  a  skele- 
ton of  a  crew  that  could  muster  no  more  than  six  fore- 
most men  capable  of  duty  in  a  watch!  Since  leaving 
the  Solent  she  had  buried  two  hundred  and  ninety-two, 
leaving  a  remainder  of  two  hundred  and  fourteen.  Two 
hundred  of  the  dead  men  had  succumbed  to  the  spotted 
plague  of  the  scurvy,  and  scarcely  a  man  remained  on 
board  who  was  entirely  free  from  the  disease! 

Three  days  afterwards  the  Tryall  sloop  came  stagger- 
ing in.  She  was  sailed  by  a  crew  of  five,  the  only  be- 
ings on  board  who  had  strength  to  stand  on  their  legs, 
and  these  were  Captain  Saunders,  his  lieutenant,  and 
three  of  the  men.  Out  of  her  small  complement  the 
Tryall  had  buried  forty-two,  of  which  thirty-four  had 
fallen  to  the  scurvy. 

On  the  21st  of  June  a  ship  was  seen  on  the  horizon  to 
leeward  of  the  island,  with  no  sail  spread  but  her  courses 
and  main-topsail.  It  was  the  unfortunate  Gloucester,  so 
faint  that  her  spark  of  life  was  almost  gone !  Assistance 
in  men  and  provisions  were  sent  out  to  her  from  the 
island,  but,  owing  to  the  weather,  and  her  tragic  condi- 
tion which  let  her  drift  almost  where  she  would,  it  was  the 
23rd  of  July  before  she  limped  to  her  anchorage !  The 
unfortunate  Gloucester  had  only  eighty-two  men  left 
alive,  a  quarter  of  her  original  complement! 

The  victualing  ship,  the  Anna  Pink,  did  not  arrive  un- 
til the  middle  of  August,  but,  owing  doubtless  to  the  na- 
ture of  her  cargo,  she  appears  to  have  come  in  fairly 
good  condition. 

The  death  roll  of  the  first  three  ships  was  not  yet  at 
an  end,  for  many  of  the  men  died  after  they  had  got 
ashore,  and  as  for  the  decrepit  marines  from  Chelsea 


%,  ^m 


AMBROSK    O  IlI(;(;iNS 


EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY  BRITISH  VOYAGES      125 

Hospital — it  was  practically  a  case  of  a  clean  sheet  with 
them — a  wash  out! 

There  was  just  one  further  calamity  which  the  Brit- 
ish squadron  escaped,  by  a  matter  of  hours  only.  They 
suspected  nothing  of  this  at  the  time,  although  the  quan- 
tity of  broken  jars,  fishbones,  and  ashes  which  the  men 
found  on  their  first  landing  gave  them  some  reason  to 
wonder.  As  they  subsequently  found  out,  an  intact  Span- 
ish squadron  from  Callao  had  been  waiting  at  the  island, 
and  scarcely  had  their  topsails  sunk  below  the  horizon 
when  the  worn  and  helpless  Centurion  came  in  sight  of 
the  land. 

But  very  soon  the  benfits  of  the  fresh  provisions  found 
on  the  island  became  apparent.  There  were  the  seals, 
at  first  "not  much  admired,  though  they  afterwards  grew 
into  more  repute. ' '  There  were  also  the  fish,  which,  says 
Mr.  Walter,  furnished  delicious  repasts,  among  them 
cod  of  a  prodigious  size:  *'We  caught  also  cavallies, 
gropers,  large  breams,  maids,  silver  fish,  congers  of  a 
peculiar  kind,  and,  above  all,  a  black  fish,  which  we  most 
esteemed,  called  by  some  a  Chimney-sweeper. ' ' 

Then  there  was  the  ''sea-cra-fish,"  as  Mr.  Walter  terms 
it,  very  rightly  claiming  for  the  island  specimens  that 
they  were  probably  the  most  perfect  of  their  kind  in  the 
world : 

' '  They  generally  weighed  eight  or  nine  pounds  a-piece, 
were  of  a  most  excellent  taste,  and  lay  in  such  abundance 
near  the  water's  edge,  that  the  boat-hooks  often  struck 
into  them,  in  pulling  the  boats  to  and  from  the  shore." 

Among  his  many  admirable  and  thoughful  acts,  Anson 
played  the  Good  Samaritan  on  the  Island  of  Juan 
Fernandez.  He  sprinkled  its  fertile  earth  with  the  seed 
of  carrots,  lettuces,  and  other  vegetables,  and  planted  a 
great  number  of  apricot,  plum,  and  peach  stones.  These, 
of  course,  were  for  the  benefit  more  especially  of  any 
British  sailors  who  might  find  themselves  dependent  on 
the    hospitality   of   the   uninhabited    island.     But   they 


U6     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

served  for  all,  as  was  evidenced  by  some  Spanish  prison- 
ers who  were  brought  to  England  some  years  later. 
These  desired  to  be  presented  to  Anson  in  order  to  thank 
him  for  his  great  courtesy  toward  some  relatives  of  theirs 
whom  he  had  formerly  held  as  prisoners.  In  the  course 
of  the  conversation  they  told  Anson  that,  before  its  cap- 
ture, their  ship  had  touched  at  Juan  Fernandez,  and 
asked  him  if  it  were  not  he  who  was  responsible  for  the 
groves  of  peach  and  apricot  trees  which  now  embellished 
the  island. 

The  crews  of  the  squadron  found  that  the  goats  in 
which  the  island  formerly  abounded  had  been  largely 
reduced  by  the  dogs  introduced  by  the  Spaniards  in  or- 
der to  destroy  a  source  of  provision  so  convenient  to  the 
bucaneers  and  to  the  later  hostile  vessels.  Richard 
Walter  has  a  most  interesting  statement  concerning 
Alexander  Selkirk's  custom  of  marking  the  ears  of  those 
goats  he  did  not  want,  and  letting  them  go  free.    He  says : 

''This  was  about  thirty-two  years  before  our  arrival  at 
that  Island.  Now  it  happened  that  the  first  goat  that 
was  killed  by  our  people,  at  their  landing,  had  his  ears 
slit;  whence  we  concluded,  that  he  had  doubtless  been 
formerly  under  the  power  of  Selkirk.  This  was,  indeed, 
an  animal  of  a  most  venerable  aspect,  dignified  with  an 
exceeding  majestic  beard,  and  with  many  other  symptoms 
of  antiquity.  During  our  stay  on  the  Island,  we  met  with 
others  marked  in  the  same  manner;  all  the  males  being 
distinguished  by  an  exuberance  of  beard,  and  every  other 
characteristic  of  extreme  age." 

Surely  to  do  justice  to  the  full  romance  of  this  story 
of  the  island  goats  the  joint  pens  of  Robert  Louis  Steven- 
son and  Defoe  would  be  needed ! 

In  September,  the  spring  of  the  southern  latitudes,  the 
squadron  was  once  again  ready  for  sea.  The  Anna  Pink 
had  been  broken  up,  and  her  crew  had  been  distributed 
among  the  Centurion,  Gloucester,  and  Tryall.  Neverthe- 
less, instead  of  the  nine  hundred  and  sixty-one  men  which 


EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY  BRITISH  VOYAGES      127 

had  manned  these  vessels  on  their  departure  from  the 
Solent,  they  had  to  be  content  now  with  the  three  hundred 
and  thirty-five  survivors.  Even  so,  rested,  refreshed, 
and  refitted,  the  squadron  set  out  in  high  spirits — spirits 
which  were  not  lowered  when  they  almost  immediately 
began  to  fall  in  with  Spanish  vessels  and  to  take  rich 
prizes,  laden  with  silver  and  valuable  merchandise. 

Indeed,  Anson's  cruise  off  the  Pacific  coast  of  South 
America  recalls  a  voyage  of  Drake  or  of  one  of  the  early 
bucaneers,  save  that  all  the  harsher  incidents  of  the  latter 
were  softened  and  retrieved  by  the  most  excellent  chiv- 
alry and  courtesy  of  the  British  commander.  It  is  pleas- 
ant to  think  that  these  qualities  were  appreciated  to  the 
full  by  the  Spaniards,  and  that  very  nearly  a  century 
afterwards  Anson's  name  was  still  held  in  honor  along 
the  Pacific  coast! 

The  difference  in  the  attitude  of  his  numerous  prison- 
ers on  their  capture  and  on  their  release  was  almost  hu- 
morously striking.  Ladies,  taken  from  a  commandeered 
ship,  boarded  the  Centurion  in  deep  anguish  fearful  of 
all  that  was  most  brutal  and  bad  at  the  hands  of  this 
raiding  heretic !  But  when  they  found  themselves  in  un- 
disturbed possession  of  their  own  apartments  on  board, 
and  that  their  sex  and  susceptibilities  were  held  in  com- 
plete reverence  throughout,  they  took  courage,  and  in 
the  end  asserted  their  will  to  no  small  purpose.  For 
when  the  time  came  for  them  to  go  they  refused  point- 
blank  to  stir  until  they  had  been  given  an  opportunity 
of  thanking  this  very  gallant  sailor !  And,  as  every  one 
of  the  male  prisoners  found  himself  under  similar  obli- 
gations, the  White  Ensign,  though  an  enemy 's  flag,  won  a 
prodigious  amount  of  honor  along  the  coasts  of  Chile  and 
Peru. 

With  reference  to  the  capture  of  Paita,  Captain  Hall, 
writing  from  that  place  in  1821  remarks:  ''Lord  An- 
son's proceedings,  we  were  surprised  to  find,  are  still 
traditionally  known  at  Payta  and  it  furnishes  a  curious 


128     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

instance  of  the  effect  of  manners  on  the  opinion  of  man- 
kind, to  observe  that  the  kindness  with  which  the  saga- 
cious officer  invariably  treated  his  Spanish  prisoners,  is, 
at  the  distance  of  eighty  years,  better  known,  and  more 
dwelt  upon  by  the  inhabitants  of  Payta,  than  the  capture 
and  destruction  of  the  town." 

It  is  impossible  to  follow  in  detail  this  voyage  of  An- 
son's. As  I  have  said,  it  may,  from  the  practical  point 
of  view,  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  early  privateer's 
cruises — bowdlerized!  There  were  ships  captured  and 
new  prizes  manned.  There  was  the  landing  at  Paita  in 
Peru,  already  referred  to,  and  the  sacking  and  burning 
of  that  town  under  the  nose  of  the  hostile  forces  as- 
sembled just  to  the  rear  of  it,  who  were  ' '  furnished  with 
trumpets,  drums,  and  standards,"  and  who  ''paraded 
about  the  hill  with  great  ostentation,  sounding  their  mili- 
tary music,  and  practising  every  art  to  intimidate  us. ' ' 

But  the  sailors  ashore  refused  to  be  intimidated  by  any- 
thing of  the  kind.  In  a  rollicking  fit  they  were  adorning 
themselves  with  all  the  glittering  and  foppish  clothes,  and 
all  the  laced  hats,  they  could  lay  their  hands  on,  being 
vastly  amused  at  each  other's  appearance.  After  a  time 
the  performance  developed  into  a  sort  of  pantomime: 
''Those,  who  came  latest  into  the  fashion,  not  finding 
men's  cloaths  sufficient  to  equip  themselves,  were  obliged 
to  take  up  with  women's  gowns  and  petticoats,  which 
(provided  there  was  finery  enough)  they  made  no  scruple 
of  putting  on,  and  blending  with  their  own  greasy  dress. 
So  that  when  a  party  of  them,  thus  ridiculously  metamor- 
phosed, first  appeared  before  Mr.  Brett,  he  was  extremely 
surprised  at  the  grotesque  sight,  and  could  not  immedi- 
ately be  satisfied  that  they  were  his  own  people." 

This  must  have  been  a  sight  worth  seeing,  with  its 
background  of  burning  houses,  the  hostile  troops  of  horse- 
men hovering  in  the  mid-distance,  and  the  mighty  peaks 
of  the  Andes  to  fill  in  the  horizon. 

There  were  other  circumstances  of  the  voyage  which 


EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY  BRITISH  VOYAGES     129 

produced  a  more  varied  species  of  humor.  For  instance, 
when  a  launch  cruising  by  the  shore  was  overhauled  and 
boarded,  its  occupants  protested  that  they  were  but 
wretched  poverty-stricken  folk,  carrying  some  cotton  in 
jars.  Yet,  when  discovered,  these  impoverished  people 
were  dining  unreasonably  well  off  pigeon  pie  on  silver 
dishes.  This  in  itself  seemed  a  little  out  of  place,  and 
a  closer  investigation  of  the  cotton  revealed  doubloons 
and  dollars  to  the  extent  of  nearly  £12,000  secreted  within 
it! 

By  this  time  Anson  had  learned  of  the  tragic  failure 
of  the  expedition  on  the  Atlantic  side  of  the  Isthmus  of 
Panama — an  undertaking  that  had  promised  every  suc- 
cess, until  the  death  of  Admiral  Vernon  threw  everything 
into  a  confusion  which  his  successors  tried  in  vain  to  re- 
duce to  order.  Anson  had  learned,  too,  how  fifteen  thou- 
sand splendid  British  troops  had  perished  on  the  coast, 
some  in  the  course  of  an  attack  on  Carthagena,  but  the 
majority  from  fever  and  dysentery.  There  were  no  Brit- 
ish troops  remaining  now  on  the  Isthmus,  and  that  part 
of  Anson's  program  fell  away. 

One  of  the  chief  objects  of  the  British  squadron  was 
now  the  great  Manila  galleon,  which  they  knew  was  at 
sea,  bound  for  the  Mexican  port  of  Acapulco.  This 
Manila  galleon  was  the  kind  of  craft  worthy  to  haunt  the 
imagination  of  Drake  himself.  This  was  the  vessel 
which  carried  the  merchandise  and  coin  to  and  fro  be- 
tween the  rich  Spanish  colonies  of  Mexico  and  the  Philip- 
pines. 

The  squadron  cruised  off  Acapulco,  every  eye  on  board 
straining  for  a  sight  of  the  great  lumbering  galleon. 
Hopes  and  fears  rose  and  fell  from  February  onwards. 
Once,  for  a  peculiarly  anxious  period,  the  squadron  had 
to  leave  its  station  to  water  at  Chequetan.  At  length, 
despairing  of  the  galleon,  the  British  squadron  sailed 
away  to  the  west  on  the  6th  of  May,  lamenting  not  a  little 
that  the  loss  of  those  military  efforts  which  had  been  put 


130      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

out  of  their  power  by  the  storm  and  the  scurvy,  should 
not  have  been  compensated  for  in  some  degree  by  the 
blow  to  Spain  such  as  the  capture  of  the  Manila  galleon 
would  have  produced. 

On  the  voyage  to  the  west  the  Gloucester  became  unsea- 
worthy,  and,  her  crew  having  been  transferred  to  the 
Centurion,  she  was  set  on  fire  and  destroyed.  Her  loss 
was  a  blow  to  the  expedition,  and,  scurvy  breaking  out 
again,  for  a  time  the  prospect  became  as  melancholy  as  it 
had  appeared  before  the  island  of  Juan  de  Fernandez 
was  sighted. 

Fortunately  the  sailors  found  relief  at  the  island  of 
Tinian,  one  of  the  Ladrones,  where  many  more  adven- 
tures were  met  with  than  can  be  related  here.  From 
Tinian  the  Centurion,  alone  now,  sailed  to  the  Portuguese 
city  of  Macao  at  the  entrance  of  the  Canton  River.  Here 
the  Centurion  refitted  completely,  remaining  until  the 
following  year,  in  April  of  which  Anson  set  out  again 
on  a  final  attempt  to  intercept  the  Manila  galleon. 

On  the  20th  of  June,  those  on  the  Centurion  still  cruis- 
ing the  South  Sea,  saw  a  sail  rising  up  over  the  horizon  to 
the  southeast.  It  was  the  Manila  galleon!  She  was  a 
formidable  antagonist  since  she  carried  five  hundred  and 
fifty  men  and  thirty-six  guns.  But  the  Centurion's  de- 
pleted crew  knew  their  business,  and  after  an  hour  and  a 
half's  engagement  the  Nuestra  Senora  de  Covadonga, 
having  sixty-seven  dead  and  eighty-four  wounded,  struck 
her  colors. 

On  board  of  the  prize  were  found  1,313,843  pieces  of 
eight,  and  35,682  ounces  of  virgin  silver.  After  this  the 
staunch  Centurion  sailed  home,  and  safely  dropped  her 
*'hook"  at  Spithead  on  the  15th  of  June  after  a  cruise  of 
three  years  and  nine  months. 

In  connection  with  this  famous  voyage  of  Anson's  it 
may  be  remarked  that  a  fine  old  sailor,  Vice-Admiral 
Campbell,  who  died  in  1790,  served  in  the  Centurion  as  a 
midshipman  throughout  the  cruise.    When  a  captain, 


EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY  BRITISH  VOYAGES      131 

Campbell  served  with  Sir  Edward  Hawke  in  the  impor- 
tant action  which  ended  in  the  defeat  of  the  Marquis  de 
Conflans  in  1759.  Having  greatly  distinguished  himself 
in  the  battle  he  was  sent  home  to  bear  the  news  of  the 
victory.  Lord  Anson  drove  his  old  comrade  to  the 
palace,  and  the  following  conversation,  as  related  by 
John  Marshall,  will  show  that  Campbell,  notwithstanding 
his  high  connections,  was  possessed  of  a  Spartan  simplic- 
ity of  manner. 

'^ Captain  Campbell,"  exclaimed  Anson,  hugely  de- 
lighted at  the  victory,  ''the  King  will  knight  you,  if  you 
think  proper." 

''Troth,  my  Lord,"  said  Campbell,  "I  ken  nae  use 
that  will  be  to  me.' 

"But  your  lady  may  like  it,"  protested  Anson. 

"Weel  then,"  conceded  Campbell,  "his  Majesty  may 
knight  her  if  he  pleases." 

No  wonder  the  Centurion  performed  the  feats  she  did 
when  so  splendid  a  commander  as  Anson  had  at  his  back 
such  sturdy  officers  as  Campbell. 

Commodore  Byron  set  out  in  1764  in  the  Dolphin  for 
the  purpose  of  making  discoveries  in  the  South  Seas.  He 
was  accompanied  by  the  frigate  Tamar,  commanded  by 
Captain  Mouat.  Having  made  the  usual  call  at  Madeira, 
the  two  vessels  proceeded  to  Rio  de  Janeiro,  where  the 
Portuguese — following  a  custom  to  which  they  had  now 
become  thoroughly  addicted — enticed  fourteen  of  the 
sailors  away,  and  succeeded  in  kidnapping  five  of  them. 

After  this  the  vessels  stood  down  toward  the  Magellan 
Straits,  encountering  a  terrific  storm,  before  which  hun- 
dreds of  birds  fled,  "shrieking  through  dreadful  appre- 
hension," as  a  chronicler  has  it,  and  which  laid  the 
Dolphin  on  her  beam  end  for  a  time. 

Just  before  the  ships  entered  the  Straits  of  Magellan 
some  five  hundred  Indians  were  perceived  gathered  on 
the  shore,  and  Commodore  Byron  underwent  a  sign  con- 
ference with  a  friendly  and  gigantic  chief  of  some  seven 


132     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

feet  in  height,  having  one  eye  boldly  painted  about  in 
black,  while  the  other  was  quaintly  ornamented  with  a 
corresponding  circle  in  white.  The  Chief's  variegated 
face,  as  well  as  the  equally  bizarre  countenances  of  all 
the  rest,  soon  lit  up  with  delight  at  some  judicious  gifts 
of  beads  and  ribbons.  After  this  the  two  vessels  entered 
the  Magellan  Straits,  and  it  is  just  possible — though  by 
no  means  probable ! — that  the  news  of  their  civility  had 
preceded  them,  for,  an  officer  on  landing  in  one  of  the 
channels  was  offered  a  dog  by  one  of  these  Southern  In- 
dian braves  and  a  few  months'  old  infant  by  an  equally 
generous  squaw! 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  very  friendly  disposition  of 
the  officers  and  men  had  its  occasional  disadvantages! 
At  a  subsequent  landing,  for  instance,  they  fell  in  with 
some  very  amiable,  but  quite  primitive,  Indians,  whose 
most  admired  food  was  rotting  whale's  blubber.  Never- 
theless, they  showed  themselves  extraordinarily  grateful 
for  the  gift  of  some  biscuit  from  the  ships,  and  when 
four  of  them,  inveigled  on  board  the  Dolphin,  were  made 
to  listen  to  the  strains  of  a  violin  played  by  one  of  the 
midshipmen  their  excitement  knew  no  bounds.  One  of 
them — probably  the  most  emotional  of  the  four — deter- 
mined to  make  some  suitable  effort  at  repaying  these  mo- 
ments of  joy.  So  he  dived  over  the  Dolphin's  side,  and 
re-appeared  with  a  quantity  of  his  very  best  red  paint — 
with  which  he  carefully  and  solicitously  covered  every 
bit  of  the  musical  midshipman's  face!  The  beaming  na- 
tive then  approached  Commodore  Byron  himself,  who 
only  escaped  a  similar  compliment  with  the  greatest  diffi- 
culty and  by  means  of  considerable  tact. 

Very  shortly  after  this,  Byron,  having  already  achieved 
some  good  survey  work,  left  the  coast  of  South  America, 
and  sailed  away  to  the  west. 

In  August,  1766,  only  a  few  months  after  Commoodore 
Byron  had  brought  her  safely  back  into  English  waters, 
the  Dolphin,  commanded  this  time  by  Captain  Wallis, 


EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY  BRITISH  VOYAGES      133 

again  sailed  for  South  American  waters.  On  this  occa- 
sion the  Dolphin  was  accompanied  by  the  sloop  Swallow 
and  the  storeship  Prince  Frederick. 

Wallis,  steering  practically  the  same  course  as  Byron's, 
touched  at  Madeira.  At  this  pleasant  port  Captain  Car- 
teret of  the  Swallow  soon  found  that  nine  of  his  sailors 
were  missing.  His  anxiety  was  relieved  by  a  message 
from  the  British  consul  ashore,  who  begged  him — as  much 
for  the  modesty  of  the  Madeirense  ladies,  it  was  to  be 
presumed,  as  for  the  credit  of  the  British  navy ! —  to  send 
off  a  boat  without  delay  in  order  to  take  off  the  nine 
adventurous  souls  who  were  seated,  perfectly  naked,  on 
the  large  gray  pebbles  of  the  beach. 

According  to  their  own  confession,  when  once  again  on 
board,  the  sight  of  the  mountains  and  vineyards  of 
Madeira  had  been  too  much  for  them!  As  they  argued 
before  their  relenting  captain,  they,  having  started  on  a 
long  and  perhaps  fatal  cruise,  could  scarcely  be  expected 
to  forego  their  last  opportunity  of  getting  a  really  im- 
portant skinful  of  wine !  So,  undressing,  they  had  tied 
their  money  in  handkerchiefs,  and  had  swum  ashore. 

No  historian  that  I  know  of  has  attempted  to  describe 
the  scene  at  the  Madeira  hostel  when  the  nine,  rollicking 
and  nude,  put  in  their  appearance.  Such  waste  of  im- 
pressionist material  approaches  the  criminal!  Had  any 
bystander  possessed  a  tenth  of  the  enthusiasm  for  local 
color  such  as  the  nine  Swallows  exhibited  for  the  local 
wine,  this  artistic  gap  would  never  have  yawned ! 

Continuing  its  cruise,  the  squadron  fell  in  with  the  stal- 
wart and  curiously  painted  Indians  on  the  eastern  ex- 
tremity of  the  Magellan  Straits,  and  the  crews  of  the 
vessels  watched  some  guanaco  hunts,  the  natives  gallop- 
ing after  these  animals,  and  bringing  them  down  by 
means  of  the  bolas.  The  intercourse  was  again  friendly, 
and  the  sailors,  being  greeted  with  shouts  of  ''English- 
men, come  on  shore,"  found  that  the  Indians  had  by  this 
time  picked  up  various  English  words  and  phrases. 


134     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

Once  within  the  Straits  of  Magellan,  too,  the  squadron 
fell  in  with  those  same  primitive  Indians — or  their  very- 
near  brethren — as  had  been  encountered  by  Byron's  men. 
On  this  occasion  a  little  more  was  learned  about  these 
folk  who  "smelt  as  rank  as  a  fox."  If  one  of  them,  for 
instance,  was  given  a  fair-sized  fish,  he  would  kill  it  by 
a  bite  near  the  gills,  and  would  instantly  devour  it. 

Once  clear  of  the  Straits,  Captain  Carteret  accidentally 
parted  company  from  the  Dolphin  and  the  Prince  Freder- 
ick, and  thus  the  many  adventures  which  befell  the  two 
sections  of  the  squadron  in  the  South  Seas  were  experi- 
enced separately. 

It  should  be  remarked,  however,  that  after  leaving  the 
coast  of  South  America,  the  Swallow  discovered  Pit- 
cairn's  Island — that  home  of  so  much  future  drama — so 
called  from  the  name  of  the  young  officers  who  first  set 
eyes  on  its  land. 

The  choice  of  the  Swallow,  by  the  way,  for  such  an 
arduous  voyage  reflected  small  credit  on  the  lords  of  the 
admiralty  of  the  day.  We  have  it  on  the  authority  of 
Lieutenant  John  Marshall,  the  editor  of  the  Eoyal  Naval 
Biography,  that  previous  to  this  voyage  she  had  been 
nearly  twenty  years  out  of  commission.  She  had  been 
slightly  sheathed  with  wood  to  preserve  her  bottom  from 
the  worms,  but,  being  nearly  thirty  years  old,  she  was 
unfit  for  foreign  service.  But  all  the  satisfaction  that 
Captain  Carteret  could  obtain  from  the  authorities  on 
this  head  previous  to  his  departure  was  the  assurance 
that  *'the  equipment  of  the  sloop  was  fully  equal  to  the 
service  she  had  to  perform." 

It  was  in  1768,  about  twenty-two  years  after  Wallis's 
and  Carteret's  expeditions,  that  Captain  Cook  set  out  in 
the  Endeavour,  accompanied  by  Mr.  Banks.  So  far  as  its 
dealings  with  South  America  were  concerned,  the  voyage 
was  notable  chiefly  for  the  hampering  restrictions  which 
were  placed  on  the  intercourse  between  the  ship  and  the 
shore  at  Eio  de  Janeiro,  and  for  the  extraordinary  hard- 


EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY  BRITISH  VOYAGES     135 

ships  endured  by  Banks  and  his  companions  on  a  land 
march  in  the  snowbound  southern  extremity  of  the  con- 
tinent. Seven  years  later  Captain  Cook  again  paid  a 
brief  visit  to  Tierra  del  Fuego. 

^  These  visits  of  the  famous  Captain  Cook  to  the  South 
Seas  seriously  disturbed  the  equanimity  of  the  Spanish 
colonial  authorities.  They  sent  a  ship  in  his  wake  to  find 
out  what  he  had  achieved,  and,  the  vessel  being  ably  com- 
manded, they  were  enabled  to  conduct  some  valuable  re- 
search work  themselves — notwithstanding  the  fact  that 
the  actual  and  inquisitive  object  of  the  voyage  was  a  far 
less  lofty  one! 

This  will  show  how  little  the  views  of  the  grandees 
had  altered  since  the  days  when  Hakluyt  had  occasion 
to  write:  ** Whoever  is  conversant  in  reading  the  Por- 
tugall  and  Spanish  writers  of  the  East  and  West  Indies, 
shall  commonly  finde  that  they  account  all  other  nations 
for  pirats,  rovers  and  theeves,  which  visite  any  heathen 
coast  that  they  have  once  sayled  by  or  looked  on. ' ' 

A  curious  instance  of  the  length  to  which  colonial  au- 
thorities carried  the  policy  of  the  seclusion  of  the  colo- 
nies was  afforded  by  the  discovery  after  the  capture  of 
Lima  by  the  patriots  of  a  state  paper  referring  to  the 
visit  in  the  first  years  of  the  nineteenth  century  of  a  dis- 
tressed American  ship  from  Boston  to  the  Island  of  Juan 
Fernandez.  The  unfortunate  vessel  had  been  badly  dam- 
aged by  a  storm,  and  had  run  short  of  water  and  fire- 
wood. It  appeared  that,  carried  away  by  a  criminal 
access  of  hospitality,  the  governor  of  Juan  Fernandez 
had  permitted  the  distressed  crew  to  repair  damages, 
take  in  wood  and  water,  and  sail  away!  Here  was  a 
pretty  kettle  of  fish !  And  the  Viceroy  immediately  thun- 
dered a  message  upon  the  erring  governor,  as  he  re- 
ported in  the  state  paper : 

*'In  my  answer  to  the  governor  I  expressed  my  dis- 
pleasure for  the  bad  service  which  he  had  rendered  to 
the  King,  in  allowing  the  strange  ship  to  leave  the  port, 


136     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

instead  of  taking  possession  of  both  her  and  the  crew. 
...  I  expressed  my  surprise,  that  the  governor  of  an 
island  should  not  know  that  every  strange  vessel  which 
anchors  in  these  seas,  without  a  licence  from  our  Court, 
ought  to  be  treated  as  an  enemy,  even  though  the  nation 
to  which  she  belonged  should  be  an  ally  of  Spain.  .  .  . 
and  I  gave  orders,  that  if  the  ship  should  appear  again, 
she  should  immediately  be  seized  and  the  crew  impris- 
oned. .  .  .  Finally,  I  desired  a  complete  statement  of  the 
whole  affair  to  be  transmitted  to  his  Majesty." 

The  document  speaks  for  itself.  The  only  thing  it  does 
not  leave  quite  clear  is  how  many  sleepless  nights  his 
Majesty  suffered  on  account  of  this  wicked  Boston  ship ! 

In  any  case  it  is  sufficiently  remarkable  that  a  policy 
of  this  sort  should  have  been  able  to  continue  as  late  as 
the  opening  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

Before  quitting  this  subject  of  ships  we  may  refer  to 
a  somewhat  remarkable  meeting  of  saints  and  sinners 
which  occurred  at  the  very  end  of  the  eighteenth  century 
in  the  pleasant  town  of  Montevideo  on  the  banks  of  the 
river  Plate.  The  contracting  parties  were  the  missionar- 
ies from  the  missionary  ship  Duff  and  the  convicts  from 
the  convict  ship  Lady  Shore.  It  was  by  a  curious  coin- 
cidence that  they  should  both  have  arrived  at  Mon- 
tevideo, since  that  place  was  not  the  destination  of  either 
company,  the  Duff  being  bound  for  the  South  Sea  Islands, 
and  the  Lady  SJiore  for  Botany  Bay.  The  manner  of 
the  arrival  of  both,  too,  was  sufficiently  adventurous. 
The  Duff  was  captured  by  French  privateers  off  Mon- 
tevideo, and  the  unfortunate  missionaries,  after  suffer- 
ing many  hardships,  were  finally  ejected  with  a  total 
want  of  consideration  on  to  the  Montevidean  shore. 
The  convicts  had  reversed  this  process.  They  had  done 
their  own  capturing,  having  first  mutinied  and  killed  a 
number  of  their  guards,  and  had  managed  to  bring  the 
Lady  Shore  into  Montevideo,  at  which  port  they  disem- 
barked. 


EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY  BRITISH  VOYAGES      137 

It  was  a  remarkable  fate  which  brought  these  two  sets 
of  people  together  on  the  Uruguayan  coast.  Probably  no 
two  communities  in  the  world  could  have  diifered  more 
widely.  Never,  claimed  the  superintendent  of  the  ^uff, 
had  missiolfaries  set  out  under  such  special  divine  pro- 
tection as  those  of  the  Dujf,  and  never  before  had  such  a 
continuous  volume  of  hymns  risen  up  from  the  deck  of 
a  ship.  In  the  dark  and  noisome  cells  of  the  Lady  Shore 
there  had  been  oaths  and  deep  curses,  and  the  blasphemies 
grew  wilder  and  hoarser  as  the  vessel  staggered  to  a 
tempest,  or  glowed  motionless  in  the  stagnant  tropics. 

What  a  heaven-sent  opportunity  for  the  missionaries ! 
I  hope,  and  believe,  that  there  are  few  members  of  the 
South  American  Missionary  Society  to-day  who  would 
not  have  leaped  at  it.  Here  were  one  hundred  and  nine- 
teen males  and  females  in  the  direst  spiritual  need,  cast 
up,  as  it  were,  at  their  very  door.  They  should  have  felt 
like  a  husbandman,  whose  wheat  had  walked  into  his  barn 
of  its  own  miraculous  accord !    But  they  did  not. 

*' We  denied  them  the  privilege  of  visiting  us,"  explains 
Gregory,  one  of  the  missionaries,  ''which  they  were  at 
first  very  forward  to  do;  but  Dr.  Sumer  and  I,  giving 
them  information  that  they  were  prohibited  from  hold- 
ing any  conversation  with  our  females,  we  received  some 
abrupt  answers,  and  they  departed." 

They  were  a  very  smug  set  of  missionaries,  these 
worthy  men  of  the  Duff,  and  for  my  own  part  I  have  little 
doubt  but  that  their  less  sanctimonious  friends  at  home 
must  have  afforded  every  facility  and  financial  subsidy 
which  would  encourage  them  to  continue  their  labor  in 
the  most  remote  South  Sea  Islands ! 

As  to  the  convicts,  there  is  ample  evidence  that  some  of 
the  women  among  them  gave  themselves  up  with  devotion 
to  the  tending  of  the  wounded  in  the  British  expedition  to 
the  Rio  de  la  Plata  which  occurred  less  than  ten  years 
afterwards,  and  thus  earned  the  deep  gratitude  of  the 
troops. 


138     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

At  this  period  the  unceasing  energies  of  the  British 
navy  made  matters  far  more  uncomfortable  for  the  Span- 
iards from  time  to  time  on  the  Pacific  coast  than  would 
appear  from  any  general  history.  A  very  salient  instance 
of  this  is  afforded  by  the  voyage  of  H.M.S.  Cornwallis, 
which  sailed  from  Madras  for  the  west  coast  of  South 
America  on  the  9th  of  February,  1807,  and  proceeded  by 
way  of  New  Holland,  Van  Diemen's  Land,  New  Zealand, 
and  Chatham  Island-  It  is  worth  while  culling  somewhat 
extensive  extracts  from  a  journal  kept  on  board,  since 
they  are  unusually  eventful,  and  instructive  concerning 
the  episodes  of  such  a  cruise.     They  are  as  follows : 

''June  14th,  at  noon,  stood  towards  Masafuero,  but  no 
appearance  of  any  sealers  on  it.  Captain  Johnston  re- 
solved to  ascertain  if  it  was  in  possession  of  the  Span- 
iards, as  had  been  reported  at  Port  Jackson.  At  5  p.m. 
the  boat  returned,  having  found  only  two  American 
sealers,  who  had  been  on  the  island  about  nine  months, 
and  had  seen  but  five  sail  during  that  time.  ...  at  6  p.m. 
made  sail  for  Juan  Fernandez,  in  expectation  of  meeting 
some  of  the  enemy's  cruisers. 

' '  June  16.  Stood  into  Cumberland  bay,  but  not  a  vessel 
or  even  a  boat  to  be  seen.  .  .  . 

"June  18th.  While  both  officers  and  men  were  indulg- 
ing themselves  in  golden  dreams,  an  incident  occurred 
which  threatened  to  involve  the  whole  in  one  general  de- 
struction. It  seems  that  the  gunner  had  deposited  a 
quantity  of  blank  musket-cartridges  in  his  store-room,  on 
the  preceding  day,  after  exercise,  instead  of  returning 
them  to  the  magazine  .  .  .  one  of  the  crew,  while  fitting 
a  flint,  snapped  his  lock,  when  the  whole  exploded  with  a 
horrible  crash.  Several  of  the  ship's  company  were 
killed,  and  many  dreadfully  burnt;  the  fore  cockpit 
was  set  on  fire,  and  the  decks  forced  up  ...  in  20  min- 
utes, however,  by  great  exertions,  the  ship  was  half 
water-logged,  and  by  9  p.m.  the  fire  was  totally  extin- 
guished." 


EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY  BRITISH  VOYAGES     139 

After  a  fruitless  visit  to  Valparaiso  and  Coquimbo  we 
arrive  at  the  entry : 

''June  27tli,  anchored  in  Guasco  Bay,  under  American 
colors ;  armed  the  boats,  and  sent  them  with  a  division  of 
small-arm  men,  under  Lieutenant  Barber,  to  procure  cat- 
tle from  the  inhabitants.  .  .  .  Finding  by  the  report  of 
Lieutenant  Barber  that  water  might  be  obtained  ...  we 
succeeded  in  obtaining  30  tons;  but  unfortunately  lost  a 
very  promising  young  officer.  Lieutenant  Robson,  who  was 
drowned  in  the  surf  whilst  attempting  to  swim  a  line 
ashore  from  the  launch. 

''July  2nd,  the  inhabitants  having  taken  away  two 
empty  butts  during  the  absence  of  the  watering  party, 
and  Lieutenant  Barber  having  informed  Captain  John- 
ston that  a  quantity  of  copper  was  deposited  near  the 
beach,  and  guarded  by  some  horsemen,  an  armed  party 
proceeded  to  seize  it,  by  way  of  retaliation.  Having 
brought  off  31  pigs,  weighing  6,000  lbs.,  and  secured  two 
Spanish  soldiers,  we  weighed  and  made  sail  to  the  north- 
ward. 

"July  8th,  a  small  vessel  from  Arica  was  captured  by 
the  jolly-boat  near  Iquique,  an  island  on  the  coast  of 
Peru.  From  her,  and  two  brigs  which  we  took  about  the 
same  time,  a  few  hogs  and  some  refreshments  were  ob- 
tained, which  proved  of  great  service,  as  the  officers  and 
ship's  company  had  been  on  two-thirds  allowance  of  all 
species,  except  spirits,  ever  since  our  departure  from 
Port  Jackson." 

After  this  the  Journal  deals  with  a  lengthy  series  of 
captures,  one  of  which  seems  to  have  occurred  on  every 
third  or  fourth  day.  Among  these  was  the  Atlantic,  of 
300  tons,  formerly  an  English  whaler,  but  now  armed  as 
a  Spanish  government  vessel — a  capture,  this,  that  was  an 
act  of  retributive  justice ! 

One  of  the  last  entries  of  importance  on  the  South 
American  coast  is : 

"Aug.  15th,  Captain  Johnston  wrote  to  the  Governor  of 


140     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

Guayaquil,  informing  him  that  he  had  liberated  the  72 
officers  and  men  belonging  to  the  prize  gun-vessels,  on 
their  parole ;  also  allowed  340  subjects  of  Spain  to  go  on 
shore  at  different  times  since  his  arrival  in  the  South 
Seas,  and  requesting  that  the  total  number  might  be  car- 
ried to  the  general  account  whenever  an  exchange  of  pris- 
oners should  be  agreed  upon  between  the  two  nations. ' ' 

All  of  which  demonstrates  a  comfortable  and  trusting 
method  of  waging  war  which  redounds  not  a  little  to  the 
credit  of  both  sides ! 

From  the  hygienic  point  of  view,  too,  there  is  no  doubt 
that  such  a  cruise  was  a  vast  improvement  on  the  West 
Indian  naval  station,  where,  in  those  days  fever  and  dis- 
ease was  only  too  rife.  It  was  Nelson  himself,  I  believe, 
who,  when  a  youngster,  served  in  the  Hinchinbrooke  fri- 
gate off  the  Mosquito  coast,  and  who,  at  the  end  of  six 
weeks,  made  one  of  the  twenty-seven  officers  and  men,  who 
alone  survived  out  of  a  complement  of  two  hundred  and 
thirty-five ! 


CHAPTER  Vn 

THE   BRITISH   EXPEDITION    TO    THE   RIVER   PLATE 

Plan  of  the  expedition — Questions  concerning  the  political  situation  in 
Spanish  South  America — Miranda's  work  in  Europe — Some  misconcep- 
tions on  the  part  of  the  British — Previous  plans  for  sending  British 
forces  to  South  America — The  expedition  to  South  Africa — Details  of 
the  voyage — After  the  capture  of  Cape  Town,  Admiral  Sir  Home  Pop- 
ham  sails  on  his  own  initiative  for  the  river  Plate — When  off  the 
mouth  of  the  river,  a  schooner  is  captured  bearing  a  Scotsman  in  the 
Spanish  pilot  service — Assistance  given  by  Russel — His  reward — A  gal- 
lant feat  of  arms  ends  in  the  capture  of  Buenos  Aires — Conduct  of  the 
Viceroy  Sobremonte — Major  Gillespie's  account  of  the  entry  of  the 
British  army  into  Buenos  Aires — Varieties  of  fellow-countrymen  found 
there — The  convicts  of  the  Jane  Shore — Improved  material  and  moral 
standing  of  these — Strategies  employed  to  conceal  the  weakness  of  the 
British  garrison — Recapture  of  the  city  by  the  South  American  forces 
— Curious  feature  of  the  action — The  capture  of  the  Justinia  by  cavalry 
and  boats — Admiral  Stirling  arrives  in  the  river  Plate  with  reinforce- 
ments— Capture  of  Montevideo — Landing  of  numerous  British  traders 
— The  "Southern  Cross  Gazette" — General  Whitelocke's  army — The  ad- 
vance on  Buenos  Aires — An  utterly  incompetent  commander-in-chief — 
British  troops  sent  to  certain  slaughter  into  the  streets — Capitulation 
of  the  expedition — Political  objects  directly  and  indirectly  attained  by 
the  invasion — A  minor  result  in  England  of  the  undertaking — Some 
records  of  the  prisoners  of  General  Beresford's  army  who  remained  in 
South  America — El  Guapo  Beresfor — An  experience  of  the  authors — 
The  outcome  of  a  day's  shooting  in  Misiones. 

THERE  can  be  no  doubt  whatever  that  a  consider- 
able amount  of  misapprehension  attended  the 
despatch  of  the  British  expedition  to  the  river 
Plate.  It  is  a  tragic  commonplace  of  our  wars  that  the 
services  of  the  Intelligence  Department  have  seldom  kept 
pace  with  the  deeds  of  the  soldiers  in  the  field. 

In  1805  it  is  certain  that  information  had  blundered 
concerning  the  attitude  and  ambitions  of  the  colonists  of 
Spanish  South  America.    But  on  this  occasion  there  was 

141 


142     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

more  excuse  than  usual  for  a  blunder  of  the  kind.  For 
years,  the  South  American  patriot,  General  Miranda,  had 
been  working  with  an  unceasing  ardor  in  London  and 
Paris,  imploring  military  assistance  to  fling  off  the  bur- 
den of  Spanish  rule,  and  promising  the  enthusiastic  co- 
operation of  the  South  Americans.  Undoubtedly  here 
again  the  deep-rooted  European  ignorance  of  South 
American  affairs  played  its  part.  Miranda  was  speaking 
for  the  North  of  the  continent,  for  Central  America,  and 
for  Mexico.  He  held  no  proxy  from  the  Argentines  and 
from  the  South. 

Much  of  the  affair  was  concerned  with  mistaken  ideas 
as  to  bunting !  The  British  proposed  to  offer  the  South 
Americans  the  Union  Jack  in  the  place  of  the  yellow  and 
red  of  Spain.  But  the  South  Americans,  although  anx- 
ious enough  to  fight  by  the  side  of  the  Union  Jack,  had 
other  ideas.  They  had  it  in  mind  to  toss  up  the  old  Span- 
ish flag  and  to  let  it  explode  in  mid-air  like  a  rocket,  when 
it  should  send  out  quite  new  stars  and  brand-new  patterns 
of  colors,  which  should  be  the  property  of  the  South 
Americans  alone.  But  even  the  South  Americans  them- 
selves were  sufficiently  vague  as  to  the  details  of  their 
future. 

It  was  only  known  in  England  that  the  discontent  in 
the  South  was  growing,  and  this  was  not  the  first  occasion 
on  which  a  proposal  had  been  broached  to  send  a  British 
expedition  to  South  America.  In  1793  an  expedition  had 
actually  come  to  a  rendezvous  at  the  island  of  Saint  Hel- 
ena, but  the  enterprise  was  abandoned  at  the  last  moment. 
Addington  is  said  to  have  had  a  scheme  of  the  kind  in 
mind  in  1801,  and  in  1804  Pitt  in  conjunction  with  Lord 
Melville  had  actually  provided  a  force,  under  Sir  Home 
Popham,  to  sail  with  Miranda  to  the  banks  of  the  Orinoco 
River  and  to  raise  in  South  America  the  flag  of  revolt. 
The  unfavorable  military  and  naval  situation  which  pre- 
vailed at  the  beginning  of  1805  was  alone  responsible  for 
the  stoppage  of  the  plan. 


BRITISH  EXPEDITION  TO  RIVER  PLATE      143 

When  Sir  Home  Popham,  the  organizer  of  the  expedi- 
tion, set  sail  on  the  last  day  of  August,  1805,  with  his 
fleet  and  with  a  convoy  of  fourteen  Indiamen  acting  as 
transports  for  troops,  his  destination  was  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope.  The  South  American  scheme  was  fated  not 
to  develop  until  later  in  the  day,  and  then  in  an  irregular 
fashion ! 

On  the  way  to  South  Africa,  as  was  usual  enough,  the 
fleet  called  at  San  Salvador — now  more  generally  known 
as  Bahia — in  Brazil.  Here  provisions  were  laid  in,  and 
a  member  of  the  expedition  explains  that  ''the  two  serv- 
ices were  furnished  here  with  66  pipes  of  sound  port,  at 
£24  each." 

But  almost  immediately  there  arose  lament  from  sailors 
and  marines  and  soldiers.  The  story  of  Anson's  expedi- 
tion and  of  half-a-dozen  others  was  repeated.  The  Portu- 
guese were  determined  to  make  hay  so  long  as  the  sun 
shone  on  the  British  vessels  in  their  bay.  The  prices  of 
all  things  went  soaring  upwards  at  a  most  merciless  pace. 
Even  the  pilot  of  the  port,  plunging  headlong  into  the 
commercial  fray,  opened  a  grog  shop,  and  before  the  fleet 
left  he  had  made  no  less  than  live  thousand  dollars  profit 
out  of  the  extempore  and  shrewd  venture ! 

A  certain  amount  of  trouble  occurred  too,  on  account 
of  the  villainous,  and  occasionally  murderous,  habits  of 
the  local  boatmen,  who  have  never  enjoyed  the  best  of 
reputations.  The  humorous  side  of  the  picture  was  in 
part  supplied  by  the  Brazilian  soldiers,  whose  cartouche- 
boxes  were  found  to  contain  maize  instead  of  ammuni- 
tion !  Finally,  to  conclude  with  the  events  at  Bahia,  Dr. 
Emmerson,  of  the  medical  staff,  an  excellent  musician, 
otfered  to  play  the  organ  at  one  of  the  numerous  churches. 
After  some  hesitation  the  offer  was  accepted,  when  Dr. 
Emmerson  made  the  roof  ring  with  "Britons,  Strike 
Home!"  "Britannia  Rules  the  Waves!"  and  "God  Save 
the  King!"  to  the  open  astonishment  and  admiration  of 
the  Brazilians,  it  is  said. 


144     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

After  this  the  British  fleet  sailed  for  Table  Bay;  and 
the  troops  took  possession  of  Cape  Town.  It  was  from 
this  point  that  the  expedition  set  sail  for  the  river  Plate 
on  the  14th  of  April,  1806. 

It  is  generally  supposed  that  Sir  Home  Popham  acted 
entirely  on  his  own  initiative  in  thus  endeavoring  to  add 
to  the  laurels  the  force  had  already  won.  This  is  possi- 
ble enough,  since  in  any  case  he  was  aware  of  Pitt's  pre- 
vious intentions  toward  South  America,  and  how  they 
had  been  frustrated  through  no  fault  of  the  minister's. 
This  may  well  have  encouraged  him  to  an  attempt  the 
success  of  which  would  have  marked  him  as  one  of  the 
great  leaders  of  his  age. 

However  that  may  be,  the  fleet  sailed  from  Table  Bay, 
called  at  St.  Helena,  and  at  the  beginning  of  June  the 
vessels  were  creeping  in  cautiously  toward  the  land,  the 
blue  of  the  ocean  changing  to  yellow  and  brown  as  they 
entered  the  mouth  of  the  mighty  river. 

Near  Montevideo  was  captured  a  schooner,  which  hap- 
pened to  have  on  board  one  of  the  Royal  Spanish  pilots 
of  the  Rio  de  la  Plata.  The  appearance  and  speech  of 
this  latter  were  entirely  Spanish,  and  at  first  he  pro- 
fessed to  understand  not  a  word  of  English;  but  per- 
sistent questioning  elicited  the  fact  that  there  was  very 
little  of  the  real  Spaniard  about  him,  and  he  admitted  at 
length  in  his  native  tongue  that  he  was  a  Scotsman  of  the 
name  of  Eussel,  who  had  been  residing  in  Buenos  Aires 
for  fifteen  years.  Eussel  consented  to  give  his  services 
to  the  expedition,  and  he  rendered  valuable  assistance. 
But  I  much  fear  that  in  after  life  he  must  have  regretted 
the  day  he  fell  in  with  the  British  fleet.  For  after  the 
departure  of  the  British  army  of  occupation  from  South 
America,  Russel  was  imprisoned  by  the  Spaniards  for  his 
share  of  the  affair,  and  when  he  subsequently  made  his 
way  to  England  in  the  hope  of  obtaining  some  recom- 
pense he  found  himself  disappointed  in  his  expectations. 
He  left  his  native  island  again  in  a  bitter  frame  of  mind. 


^-irta^)S!rU:airti 


BRITISH  EXPEDITION  TO  RIVER  PLATE      145 

and  doubtless  drowned  his  grief  in  double  quantities  of 
those  strong  waters  of  which,  it  appears,  he  was  too  fond 
for  his  own  good  at  the  best  of  times. 

The  details  of  this  first  expedition  are  simple,  but 
sufficiently  stirring.  That  a  landing  party  of  under 
seventeen  hundred  men,  all  told,  should  have  attempted 
the  conquest  of  a  city  of  more  than  forty  thousand  in- 
habitants, surrounded,  moreover,  by  thousands  of  active 
horsemen  in  the  open  country,  is  sufficiently  surprising 
in  itself.  That  it  succeeded  is  a  tribute  to  the  daring  of 
the  soldiers  and  the  fine  qualities  of  those  typical  British 
sailors  who,  as  the  force  approached  the  town  in  a  deluge 
of  winter  rain,  harnessed  themselves  to  the  guns,  drag- 
ging them  through  the  morasses,  and  themselves  swim- 
ming across  the  swollen  streams  that  impeded  their  prog- 
ress from  time  to  time. 

It  was  a  gallant  feat  in  the  face  of  gallant  enemies,  for, 
had  the  Viceroy  Sobremonte  chosen  to  undertake  a  spir- 
ited defense  of  the  town,  he  would  have  found  himself 
valiantly  supported,  as  subsequent  events  proved.  But 
Sobremonte,  the  Viceroy  of  Buenos  Aires,  the  keystone  of 
the  defense,  fled  incontinently,  and  exhibited  himself  as 
a  ludicrous  and  terrified  figure  that  opened  the  eyes  and 
minds  of  the  South  Americans  for  good  and  all!  Un- 
doubtedly some  bitter  sentiment  prevailed  in  Buenos 
Aires  when  the  inhabitants  watched  the  entry  of  the  ludi- 
crously small  force  that  had  surprised  the  town.  The  Ar- 
gentine patriot  Belgrano  has  recorded  his  chagrin  as  a 
spectator  of  this,  and  has  also  left  behind  him  a  striking 
testimonial  to  ''the  brave  and  honourable  Beresford, 
whose  valour  in  this  perilous  enterprise  I  admire,  and 
shall  always  admire." 

Major  Gillespie,  one  of  the  officers  of  the  expedition,  has 
an  interesting  account  of  many  meetings,  on  the  army's 
entry  into  Buenos  Aires,  with  countryfolk,  w^hose  presence 
they  had  not  suspected : 

' '  The  night  had  not  closed  before  we  were  accosted  by 


146     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

several  of  our  countrymen,  over  whose  individual  his- 
tories there  hung  much  obscurity.  Some,  we  were  told, 
had  been  supercargoes,  or  consignees,  who  had  abused 
their  trust,  and  had  thus  become  everlasting  exiles  from 
their  country  and  their  friends,  while  others  were  com- 
posed of  both  sexes,  who  by  a  violation  of  our  laws,  had 
been  banished  from  their  protection,  and  whose  crimes, 
in  a  part  of  them,  had  been  still  more  deepened  in  their 
die,  as  perpetrators  of  murder.  These  were  some  of  the 
convicts  of  the  Jane  SJiore,  who  had  become  citizens  by 
their  religion ;  a  most  essential  preliminary  in  this  conti- 
nent, to  personal  safety  and  prosperity.  As  we  could  not, 
under  our  circumstances,  discriminate  their  shades  of 
guilt,  I  can  only  speak  of  them  as  a  body  of  unfortunates 
...  all  of  that  list,  except  one  dissolute  female,  were 
settled  in  decent  employs,  and  doing  well,  and  all  of  them 
contended  in  their  good  offices  to  us.  The  partial  serv- 
ices of  a  few  towards  our  distressed  soldiers  while  in 
prison  will  atone  for  many  weighty  sins. ' ' 

Compare  these  acknowledgments  with  the  cold  con- 
tempt poured  on  the  convicts'  advances  by  the  mission- 
airies  of  the  Duff! 

It  is  a  curious  story,  that  of  the  British  occupation  of 
Buenos  Aires.  The  preservation  of  individual  friend- 
ships between  British  and  Argentines,  the  strategies  em- 
ployed by  the  garrison  to  conceal  the  real  weakness  of 
their  numbers,  the  gradual  gathering  and  organization  of 
the  hostile  forces  outside  the  city,  the  passage  of  the 
Argentine  army  across  the  Eio  de  la  Plata,  the  final  as- 
sault and  desperate  defense  which  ended  in  the  inevitable 
capitulation  of  General  Beresford's  little  force — all  these 
events  formed  part  of  a  moving  period. 

Argentine  historians  frankly  admit  that  their  General 
Liniers  offered  Beresford  terms  of  surrender  which  w^ere 
not  afterwards  carried  out  to  the  full — owing,  they  claim, 
to  the  fact  that  Liniers  offered  more  than  lay  in  his  power 
to    concede.    From   his   negotiations    with   this    officer 


BRITISH  EXPEDITION  TO  RIVER  PLATE      147 

Beresford  bad  reason  to  suppose  that  the  British  force 
would  be  permitted  to  return  to  England.  But  this  was 
not  complied  witb,  and  be  and  bis  men  were  interned. 

General  Beresford  and  Colonel  Pack,  assisted  by  two 
Soutb  Americans,  and  an  American  of  tbe  name  of  Wbite, 
subsequently  escaped  to  Montevideo.  Padilla,  one  of  tbe 
two  South  Americans,  afterwards  assisted  in  the  editing 
of  the  Spanish  edition  of  tbe  '^ Southern  Cross,"  the  pub- 
lication established  by  tbe  British  in  Montevideo. 

It  is,  of  course,  impossible  to  enter  here  into  the  sep- 
arate events  of  the  campaign,  but  one  very  curious  inci- 
dent must  be  remarked  in  the  action  which  resulted  in  the 
recapture  of  Buenos  Aires  by  the  Argentines.  The  Jus- 
tinia,  a  small  26-gun  British  vessel,  had  approached  very 
near  the  shore  in  order  to  assist  in  the  defense  of  the  city. 
A  sudden  and  extraordinary  retreat  of  the  tide — ^which  is 
here  largely  at  the  mercy  of  the  winds — left  her  high  and 
dry.  On  this  a  cloud  of  South  American  cavalry  galloped 
out  over  the  mud,  and  captured  her. 

It  might  well  be  supposed  that  a  feat  such  as  the  board- 
ing of  a  vessel  by  cavalry  was  unique.     But  this  is  not  so. 

There  are  at  least  two  other  instances  of  craft  being 
attacked  by  cavalry  in  the  Spanish  colonies.  The  first 
occurred  in  1799,  not  on  the  mainland,  but  on  the  north 
shore  of  the  island  of  Puerto  Rico.  Some  boats  from  the 
British  warship  Trent,  sighting  a  Spanish  felucca  ashore, 
pulled  in  toward  the  land  to  capture  her  and  to  endeavor 
to  get  her  afloat. 

As  the  Trent's  barge  drew  quite  near,  a  strong  body  of 
Spanish  cavalry  came  pounding  down  to  the  shore,  and 
formed  up  on  the  beach.  Then,  seeing  that  the  British 
still  persisted  in  the  attempt,  the  barge  was  actually  at- 
tacked by  a  swarm  of  troopers  who  rode  straight  into 
the  sea,  and  behaved  in  what  the  sailors  termed  a  very 
creditable  manner,  until  the  Trent's  launch,  coming  up  to 
the  assistance  of  the  barge,  rounded  an  intervening  point 
of  land,  and  perceived  what  was  afoot.     The  launch  then 


148     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

opened  fire  upon  the  Spanish  cavalry  with  grape,  canister, 
and  musketry,  when,  as  the  chronicler  has  it,  "they 
scampered  off  in  the  greatest  confusion,  many  of  the 
horses  throwing  their  riders,  to  the  great  amusement  of 
every  Briton  present." 

So  this  spirited  and  amphibious  action  appears  to  have 
ended  in  an  appropriately  jocular  fashion! 

The  second  represents  probably  the  most  remarkable 
feat  ever  accomplished  by  cavalry  against  boats.  This 
took  place  in  the  Northern  campaign  of  the  War  of  Lib- 
eration, and  was  witnessed  by  a  number  of  British  offi- 
cers in  the  patriot  service.  It  happened  that  a  flotilla 
of  small  Spanish  gunboats  was  stationed  on  the  Apure 
River,  and  was  impeding  an  important  march  of  Bolivar's 
men.  One  of  the  most  famous  of  the  Northern  leaders, 
General  Paez,  brought  three  hundred  of  his  lancers  up  to 
the  bank,  and  spurred  his  horse  into  the  water,  bidding 
his  men  follow  him.  In  a  moment  the  three  hundred 
were  swimming  toward  the  gunboats — literally  gunboats, 
these,  not  the  large  craft  which  to-day  steam  under  that 
name — ^flogging  the  water  and  shouting  in  order  to  scare 
away  the  Spanish  allies  in  the  shape  of  crocodiles.  Spear 
in  hand,  the  men  made  for  the  boats,  and,  leaping  from 
their  horses'  backs  over  the  gunwales,  actually  suc- 
ceeded in  capturing  them. 

All  this,  however,  has  taken  us  somewhat  far  afield  from 
the  British  expedition  to  the  river  Plate. 

After  Buenos  Aires  had  been  recaptured  by  the  Argen- 
tines, and  Beresford  had  been  taken  prisoner.  Sir  Home 
Popham  remained  on  the  spot,  to  blockade  the  mouth  of 
the  river,  and  to  await  the  reinforcements  which  it  was 
certain  that  the  news  of  the  capture  of  Buenos  Aires 
would  cause  to  be  sent  from  England. 

This  news  had  created  no  small  stir  in  London.  In- 
deed, the  manner  of  its  announcement  was  designed  to 
cause  a  sensation.  A  million  dollars,  the  booty  taken 
from  the  Southern  city,  entered  London  in  wagons,  each 


BRITISH  EXPEDITION  TO  RIVER  PLATE      149 

of  which  was  drawn  by  six  horses,  profusely  decorated 
for  the  occasion.  The  first  of  these  wagons  was  covered 
with  the  royal  standard  of  Spain,  which  had  been  cap- 
tured from  the  fort  of  Buenos  Aires,  and  flaming  banners 
proclaimed  the  treasure  that  was  thus  borne  along  in  tri- 
umph. 

This  rather  dramatic  display  aroused  all  the  political 
and  commercial  interest  that  could  be  desired.  But  it 
was  not  until  after  the  catastrophe  which  ended  in  the 
capitulation  of  the  British  Army  of  Occupation  that  Ad- 
miral Stirling  arrived  off  the  river  Plate  to  take  charge 
of  the  naval  operations.  He  was  in  command  of  a  fleet 
which  conveyed  important  British  reinforcements,  at  the 
head  of  which  was  General  Auchmuty. 

The  news  of  the  fall  of  Buenos  Aires  naturally  threw 
the  plans  of  this  second  expedition  out  of  gear.  Mon- 
tevideo was  besieged,  and  after  a  courageous  defense  was 
stormed  by  the  British.  So  prominent  a  part,  be  it  said, 
did  the  sailors  play  in  this  siege,  that  the  flag-ship,  the 
Diadem,  was  frequently  left  with  only  thirty  men  on 
board!  Then  on  the  10th  of  May,  the  frigate  Thisbe 
brought  out  Lieutenant-General  Wliitelocke  to  assume  the 
post  of  commander-in-chief.  Rather  more  than  a  month 
later  powerful  forces  arrived  from  England,  and  with 
them  came  Admiral  Murray  to  take  over  the  command 
of  the  now  formidable  British  fleet. 

Simultaneously  with  the  forces  of  war  arrived  the  mes- 
sengers of  commerce.  Convoyed  by  the  frigates,  mer- 
chants and  clerks  sailed  out  in  shoals,  bearing  samples  of 
bales  and  beers,  cutlery  and  cloths.  To  the  ten  thousand 
or  so  of  the  inhabitants  of  Montevideo,  and  to  the  British 
army  of  occupation,  was  now  added,  exjDlains  Mr.  J.  P. 
Robertson,  who  was  present  at  the  time,  ''two  thousand 
merchants,  traders,  adventurers;  and  a  dubious  crew 
which  could  scarcely  pass  muster,  even  under  the  latter 
designation."  Establishing  themselves  at  Montevideo, 
they  began  to  prepare  themselves  for  the  commerce  which 


150      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

should  follow  the  flag.  In  the  meantime  they  occupied 
themselves  as  best  they  could.  They  wondered  at  the 
queer  muddy  tinge  of  the  waters  of  the  estuary;  they 
read  the  "Southern  Cross"  the  gazette,  printed  in  Span- 
ish and  English,  that  announced  the  liberal  policy  of  the 
British  to  the  South  Americans ;  then  they  formed  them- 
selves into  rather  awkward  volunteer  squads  and  helped 
to  garrison  Montevideo  while  Whitelocke  and  his  splendid 
army  of  eleven  thousand  picked  men  sailed  up  the  broad 
stream  to  carry  Buenos  Aires  by  assault. 

The  merchants,  left  behind  at  Montevideo,  waited  for 
the  message  which  was  to  bid  them  follow  in  the  track  of 
the  conquering  army.  It  never  came.  In  its  place  ar- 
rived tidings  which  were  at  first  received  with  blank 
amazement  and  reasonable  incredulity.  The  British 
army,  after  having  been  deprived  of  an  opportunity  of 
entering  the  city  at  the  heels  of  the  retreating  enemy 
forces,  had  been  sent  with  fixed  bayonets  into  the  streets 
of  Buenos  Aires,  and,  unflinchingly  obeying  the  command 
to  advance  into  the  obvious  death  traps,  had  been  shot 
down  in  heaps  by  the  defenders  from  the  roof-tops!  A 
capitulation  had  followed,  almost  as  disgraceful  to  White- 
locke as  had  been  his  conduct  of  the  action ! 

Presently  it  became  evident  that  this  news  was  only  too 
true,  and  that  the  merchants  would  have  to  pack  up  their 
goods — in  preparation  for  a  departure,  not  for  Buenos 
Aires,  but  for  Europe !  Soon  enough  the  fleet  returned, 
bearing  thousands  of  ojfficers  and  men,  wounded  and 
whole,  bitter  and  enraged,  and,  still  at  their  head,  the 
complacent  and  crass  Whitelocke ! 

The  sentiments  which  animated  many  of  the  South 
Americans  after  the  capitulation  may  be  gathered  from 
the  following  extract  from  a  British  officer's  diary: 

"As  for  myself,  I  had  not  been  two  hours  in  Buenos 
Aires,  when  I  was  visited  by  two  young  gentlemen,  sons 
of  Signior  Terrada,  whose  kind  hospitality  I  had  expe- 
rienced before  our  departure  into  the  interior,  who  in- 


BRITISH  EXPEDITION  TO  RIVER  PLATE      151 

sisted  on  my  accompanying  them  and  making  their  house 
my  home,  while  I  remained,  and  they  very  considerately 
brought  a  domestic  to  bear  my  luggage,  which  they  were 
surprised  to  find,  was  reduced  to  a  hand  parcel.  The 
reception  from  that  family  was  welcome  and  liberal,  and 
I  was  happy  to  learn  that  the  whole  were  safe  and  in 
health,  although  three  of  them  had  served  in  the  various 
conflicts  that  had  recently  taken  place,  in  defense  of  their 
city.  The  expressions  of  gratitude  for  British  generos- 
ity were  made  by  both  parents  upon  my  entering  into  the 
house,  when  they  intimated  that  my  conductors  had  been 
taken  prisoners,  by  Sir  Samuel  Auchmuty  on  his  storming 
the  Eetiro,  and  that  the  treatment  they  had  received 
while  they  were  in  that  unfortunate  situation  was  noble 
and  humane.  I  can  attest  the  tender  delicacy  shown  by 
every  member  of  their  household,  and  I  have  reason  to 
think  that  it  was  uniformly  the  same  in  every  other,  by 
none  of  them  even  hinting  at  the  disastrous  events  which 
had  so  lately  befallen  our  army,  in  which  young  soldiers 
might  have  been  prone  to  exult,  nor  was  a  single  topic 
proposed  by  them,  but  a  few  general  enquiries  concern- 
ing the  past,  the  repetition  of  some  stories,  and  the  urg- 
ing of  a  disclosure,  in  what  way  they  could  provide  for 
my  personal  comforts  through  the  voyage  to  Europe,  by 
money,  cloathing,  or  necessaries. ' ' 

After  this  the  remains  of  the  unfortunate  expedition 
sailed  away  northwards  to  the  British  Isles.  In  instances 
of  individual  gallantry  and  enterprise  it  had  been  as  fruit- 
ful as  any  other.  It  left  behind  it  the  corpses  of  many 
brave  men,  and  much  beyond — a  new  spirit  of  confidence 
on  the  part  of  the  colonials,  an  extraordinary  absence  of 
bitterness,  and  a  few  cannon  shot  in  the  tower  of  San 
Domingo  church,  which  became  an  institution  in  them- 
selves, and  which — when  in  course  of  time  they  fell  out 
— were  replaced  by  dummies  of  wood,  carefully  painted ! 

The  expedition,  moreover,  had  exhibited  the  sterling 
qualities  of  Generals  Beresford,  Auchmuty,   Crauford, 


152     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

and  numerous  other  senior  officers.  But  the  force  of  all 
this  courage  and  resource  had  been  completely  neutral- 
ized by  the  conduct  of  a  commander-in-chief,  whose  sole 
claim  to  distinction  appears  to  have  been  interest  in  high 
places,  and  whose  subsequent  ignominious  dismissal  from 
the  army  was  itself  considered  by  many  as  too  light  a 
sentence. 

Reverting  to  the  political  significance  of  this  expedi- 
tion, it  may  be  said  to  have  been  threefold,  including :  the 
desire  to  place  the  river  Plate  provinces  under  the  British 
flag,  that  of  assisting  the  South  American  colonials,  and 
that  of  embarrassing  the  Spaniards.  As  the  irony  of 
fate  would  have  it,  although  the  British  failed  in  the 
first,  they  succeeded — completely  if  indirectly — in  the 
second  and  third.  For  it  was  the  British  invasion  that, 
exposing  the  weakness  of  Spain  and  the  powerful  re- 
sources of  the  colonials,  assisted  materially  in  bringing 
about  the  revolution,  and  the  independence  of  Spanish 
South  America. 

The  full  moral  effects  of  the  expedition  became  clear  a 
few  years  later,  when  the  influence  which  General  Crau- 
f  ord  had  exercised  over  the  enlightened  Argentine  patriot 
Belgrano  bore  fruit,  and  materialized  as  one  of  the  fac- 
tors in  the  founding  of  the  new  nation. 

Bartolome  Mitre  has  it  that  the  British,  "having  sur- 
rendered, as  prisoners  conquered  all  hearts  to  their  ideas, 
implanting  in  them  the  fertile  germs  of  independence  and 
liberty. ' ' 

Here  is  a  note  by  Hadfield : 

''The  late  Lord  Holland,  in  his  posthumous  'Memoirs 
of  the  Whig  Party  during  My  Time'  .  .  .  has  a  very 
singular  chapter  on  the  secret  history  of  these  expedi- 
tions. His  lordship,  who  was  a  member  of  the  Cabinet  at 
the  time,  says  that  Whitelocke's  was  but  one  of  a  series 
of  South  American  expeditions,  and  that  it  was  originally 
destined  for  Valparaiso.  It  was  fortunately  'detained 
by  subsequent  events  in  Buenos  Aires,  and  the  worst  part 


BRITISH  EXPEDITION  TO  RIVER  PLATE      153 

of  our  plan  was  thus  concealed  from  the  knowledge,  and 
escaped  the  censure,  of  the  public'  Had  the  then  Min- 
ister, Lord  Grenville,  remained  in  office,  he  would  have 
sent  against  Mexico  Sir  Arthur  Wellesley,  who,  in  that 
case,  might  probably  have  never  become  Duke  of  Welling- 
ton." 

What  tiny  straws  suffice  to  show  which  way  blow  the 
ironical  winds  of  fate !  The  ordinary  student  learns  very 
little  from  the  average  history  book  concerning  this  dream 
of  a  wider  dominion  that  was  all  but  realized,  yet  at  the 
time  the  idea  appears  to  have  sunk  in  deeply  enough.  As 
early  as  January  1, 1807,  a  little  book  of  selected  Spanish 
prose  appeared,  concerning  which  the  editor  remarks  in 
the  preface:  **The  numbers  that  will  doubtless  hasten 
to  the  Spanish  Colonies  in  the  hope  of  future  fame,  or 
of  future  wealth,  will  soon  find  it  essentially  neces- 
sary to  have  a  previous  knowledge  of  the  language,  man- 
ners, and  customs,  by  which  these  Colonies  are  distin- 
guished. ' ' 

These  were  words  of  wisdom,  and  the  precaution  was 
admirable.  But  the  editor  had  overlooked  one  contin- 
gency. By  the  time  the  second  edition  had  appeared  the 
colonies  had  ceased  to  be! 

Of  those  prisoners  of  General  Beresford's  army  who 
remained  in  the  Northern  provinces  of  Argentina  only 
the  scantiest  records  are  extant.  But  traces  of  them  crop 
up  now  and  then.  Some  ten  years  later,  for  instance, 
General  Miller  on  his  way  through  Santiago  del  Estero 
was  a  guest  of  the  governor  of  that  province,  who  as- 
sured him  that  he  entertained  a  strong  liking  toward  Eng- 
lishmen, adding  that  in  his  escort  were  two  soldiers,  once 
in  the  British  army,  who  rode  like  Gauchos,  but  had  a 
weakness  for  the  bottle. 

On  this  occasion,  too.  Miller  was  besieged  with  inquir- 
ies concerning  the  later  career  of  the  general  they  termed 
the  handsome  Beresford — el  guapo  Beresfor — for  whom 
they  appear  to  have  entertained  the  greatest  esteem. 


154     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

One  and  all  were  emphatic  in  their  assertion  that  it  was 
he  who  first  taught  them  to  be  soldiers. 

Mr.  J.  P.  Robertson,  too,  mentions  having  met  in  Para- 
guay with  an  old  Scottish  sergeant  of  Beresford's  army, 
who  had  almost  forgotten  his  own  language,  and  at  the 
same  time  had  only  acquired  a  smattering  Spanish  and 
Guarani!  There  are,  moreover,  numerous  other  in- 
stances of  the  kind. 

Even  to  this  day  some  curious  links  with  the  past  flash 
out  now  and  again  in  the  Northern  provinces  of  Ar- 
gentina. I  myself  have  been  confronted  with  one  or  two 
in  the  most  expected  fashion.  On  one  occasion,  for  in- 
stance, when  shooting  in  the  province  of  Missiones  on  the 
borders  of  Paraguay,  I  was  accompanied  by  an  elderly 
peon,  who,  for  a  Gaucho,  possessed  a  remarkably  philo- 
sophical turn  of  mind. 

I  have  commented  on  this  peon  in  another  place,  but  he 
is  worthy  of  the  repetition  of  a  few  lines  here.  Shoot- 
ing, he  held,  was  all  very  well.  Birds  were  good  for  the 
digestion,  and  they  were  provided  for  that  purpose.  But 
when  the  game  was  of  another  kind — ^when  men  shot 
their  neighbors — it  was  a  pity.  He  shook  his  head  in 
grave  reproach,  for  he  was  a  remarkable  peon.  There 
had  been  too  much  of  that  in  the  past,  he  said.  Now  that 
the  railway  had  come,  it  would  be  different.  After  this 
he  branched  off  into  some  quite  minor  details  of  natural 
history,  about  which  the  average  Gaucho  very  seldom 
troubles  himself. 

I  found  out  subsequently  that  his  name  was  Stuart, 
a  discovery  that  let  in  a  flood  of  light  on  his  personality, 
and  that  sent  a  picture  of  a  remote  red-coated  ancestor 
to  the  mind.  May  it  not  savor  of  complacent  pedantry  if 
I  quote  here  the  sentiments  which  this  unusual  Gaucho 
inspired  at  the  time ! 

*'It  seemed  to  me,  now  that  I  knew  it,  that  faint  symp- 
toms of  the  origin  had  showed  in  the  man's  thoughts  and 
natural  bent.    The  love  of  nature  for  its  own  sake,  the 


BRITISH  EXPEDITION  TO  RIVER  PLATE      155 

curiosity  as  to  causes  and  results,  the  welcoming  of  peace 
and  order,  the  unusual  sense  of  comradeship  that  his 
presence  engendered — it  seemed  to  me  now  that  I  could 
read  in  these  some  remnants  of  the  instinct  bequeathed 
by  an  ancestor  of  whom  all  physical  traces  had  been  lost. 
''He  has  not  a  few  counterparts  throughout  the  land; 
their  features  grown  as  dusky  as  his,  sunk  into  the  ruck 
of  humblest  humanity,  and  knowing  no  other  life  but 
that  of  their  fellows.  Poor  Stuart!  Such  is  the  ob- 
vious pitiful  comment — possibly  misapplied.  There  is 
no  law  in  happiness,  after  all.  His  life  may  be  at  least 
as  contented  as  that  of  his  superiors — the  equals  of  his 
ancestor. ' ' 


CHAPTER  VIII 

BRITISH   GUIANA   AND   THE   FALKLAND   ISLANDS 

The  pioneers  of  Guiana — Sir  Walter  Raleigh's  opinion  of  the  country — His. 
suggestions  for  its  colonization — Guiana  from  the  modern  point  of  view 
— Its  agricultural  and  pastoral  industries — Wars  of  the  British, 
French,  and  Dutch — Complications  of  the  struggle — Bush  Negroes — 
Danger  of  these  armed  bands — Warfare  between  the  blacks  and  the 
planters — Occasional  triumph  of  the  former — Further  struggles  of  the 
European  powers — War  with  the  United  States — The  emancipation  of 
slaves — Popular  excitement  attending  this  action — Humane  but  hasty 
procedure — Questions  affecting  the  labor  of  the  colony — Life  in  Guiana 
— Some  naval  records — An  incident  connected  with  a  notorious  duellist 
— The  Falkland  Islands — Early  neglect — Attempts  at  colonization — 
Captain  McBride's  opinion  of  the  islands  in  1776 — A  depressing  de- 
scription— Occupation  by  a  Buenos  Aires  garrison — The  battle  of  the 
Falkland  Islands — Sentimental  importance  now  attaching  to  the 
colony. 

AS  these  pages  are  designed  to  show  the  work  of 
the  British  in  Iberian  South  America  and  not 
within  the  bounds  of  the  British  Empire,  any  be- 
yond a  scanty  reference  to  British  Guiana  and  to  the 
Falkland  Islands  would  be  out  of  place. 

The  early  days  of  Guiana  are  associated  not  only  with 
the  voyages  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  but  also  with  the  bold 
colonizing  attempts  in  1604  and  1609  respectively  of 
Charles  Leigh,  Robert  Harcourt,  Roger  North,  and  John 
Christmas.  Indeed,  the  number  of  voyages  which  the 
English  undertook  to  this  northeastern  shoulder  of  the 
continent  in  the  early  seventeenth  century  is  not  a  little 
remarkable. 

Raleigh,  filled  with  enthusiasm  for  Guiana,  had  boldly 
claimed  for  it  that :  * '  Those  commanders  and  chief taines 
that  shoot  at  honor  and  abundance,  shall  finde  there 
more  rich  and  beautiful  cities,  more  temples  adorned  with 

156 


BRITISH  GUIANA  157 

golden  images,  more  sepulchres  filled  with  treasure,  than 
either  Cortez  found  in  Mexico,  or  Pizarro  in  Peru:  and 
the  shining  glory  of  this  conquest  will  eclipse  all  those 
so  farre  extended  beames  of  the  Spanish  nation." 

*'Her  Majestic  may  in  these  enterprize,"  he  suggests 
further,  "employ  all  those  souldiers  and  gentlemen  that 
are  younger  brethren,  and  all  Captaines  and  Chieftaines 
that  want  employment  .  .  .  after  the  first  or  second 
yeere  I  doubt  not  but  to  see  in  London  a  Contractation 
house  of  more  receipt  for  Guiana,  than  there  is  now  in 
Sivill  for  the  AVest  Indies." 

It  soon  became  evident,  however,  that  the  hoards  of 
wealth,  which  were  reported  to  be  glittering  in  such  un- 
heard of  quantities  somewhere  among  the  forests  inland, 
were  not  to  be  lightly  w^on :  though  the  fable  of  El  Dorado 
persisted  for  many  generations.  In  the  meantime,  since 
a  more  practical  foundation  was  necessary  for  settle- 
ments, a  process  occurred  such  as  has  often  been  brought 
about  before  and  since.  The  brilliant  hopes  of  diamonds 
and  gold  yielded  to  the  more  strenuous  certainties  of  agri- 
culture— in  this  case  sugar  and  tobacco. 

Companies  and  private  persons  took  up  plantations; 
cattle  were  introduced  in  fairly  important  numbers ;  com- 
munications were  more  regularly  opened  up  with  the 
West  Indies,  and  under  Captain  Marshall  and  some  others 
considerable  progress  was  made  toward  prosperity. 

In  the  meantime  the  disturbed  state  of  England  was 
responsible  for  the  arrival  in  Guiana  of  many  immigrants 
hailing  from  both  the  Cavalier  and  Roundhead  ranks. 

In  the  latter  half  of  the  seventeenth  century  began  that 
wearying  and  complicated  series  of  wars  by  which  in  the 
end  the  fruits  of  so  much  labor  was  lost  by  British, 
French,  and  Dutch. 

It  is  impossible  here  even  to  attempt  to  go  through  the 
intricate  lengths  of  the  struggles  which  must  have  seemed 
interminable  to  the  harassed  colonists  of  those  days.  In 
the  course  of  the  conflicts  England  fought  Holland,  then 


158     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

the  English  and  French  fought  Holland;  after  this  the 
English  and  Dutch  fought  France,  and  after  a  consider- 
able time  the  French  and  the  Dutch  fought  England ! 

This  will  give  a  broad  outline  of  some  of  the  chief 
ramifications  of  the  wars  which  laid  waste  the  Guiana 
plantations.  In  the  intervals,  when  peace  reigned  be- 
tween the  three  nations,  and  when  there  might  have  been 
some  hope  of  the  agricultural  restoration  of  the  country, 
a  new  and  serious  danger  arose  in  the  roving  bodies  of 
bush  Negroes.  The  number  of  African  slaves  who  had 
succeeded  in  making  their  escape  into  the  forests  in  the 
confusion  attending  the  various  invasions  increased  until 
their  pressure  became  a  grave  threat.  Armed  bands  of 
these  Negroes  took  to  lurking  continually  on  the  outskirts 
of  the  plantations,  raiding,  murdering,  and  burning  when- 
ever the  opportunity  arose.  As  the  attempts  of  these 
bush  Negroes  grew  bolder,  the  domestic  slaves  would  fre- 
quently revolt  and  join  their  wild  ranks.  To  the  terrible 
punishments  meted  out  to  them  when  captured  the  Ne- 
groes retaliated  in  their  own  gruesome  fashion,  and  after 
a  time  a  regular  war  broke  out  between  the  blacks  and 
the  planters,  and  on  more  than  one  occasion  the  latter, 
together  with  some  regular  soldiers,  were  driven  to  the 
coast  before  a  stand  could  be  made.  On  one  occasion, 
indeed,  in  1763,  the  neighboring  Dutch  colony  of  Berbice 
had  to  be  entirely  abandoned  for  a  time,  owing  to  the 
triumphant  onsweep  of  the  victorious  Africans. 

In  1780,  England  was  face  to  face  in  Guiana  with  the 
hostile  powers  of  France,  Holland,  and  Spain,  but  the 
end  of  many  confused  operations  found  the  island  power 
with  more  territory  than  she  had  possessed  at  the  be- 
ginning. The  war  with  the  United  States  in  1812,  how- 
ever, brought  down  a  hornets'  nest  of  American  priva- 
teers on  the  coast. 

The  emancipation  of  slaves,  which  occurred  in  1834, 
was  attended  by  much  popular  excitement,  and  the  re- 
sentment of  the  plantation  owners  at  the  loss  of  the  labor 


BRITISH  GUIANA  159 

on  which  they  depended  for  the  working  of  their  fields 
seemed  in  one  sense  to  be  justified  by  the  behavior  of  the 
blacks,  who  rose  in  insurrection,  and  were  not  put  down 
until  many  wild  scenes  had  been  enacted. 

It  was  a  great  and  humane  work,  the  freeing  of  the 
Negro  Guiana  slaves.  But  it  seems  possible  to  hasten 
even  toward  good  deeds  at  too  great  a  pace.  A  more  pro- 
longed process  of  emancipation  than  the  four  years  al- 
lowed for  the  knocking  off  of  the  perfectly  unjustifiable 
fetters  would  almost  certainly  in  the  end  have  benefited 
not  only  the  financial  standing  of  the  plantations  but  the 
subsequent  condition  of  the  slaves. 

As  it  was,  the  feckless  African  flung  up  his  industrial 
mission  at  the  first  opportunity,  and  the  chaotic  labor 
situation  of  the  colony  was  only  remedied  by  the  intro- 
duction of  workers  from  the  East  Indies,  China,  and, 
rather  curiously,  Madeira,  from  the  humanity  of  which 
diminutive  island  some  of  the  earliest  of  the  Brazilian 
settlements  had  been  formed.  But  these,  let  it  be  said, 
are  by  no  means  the  only  sources  from  which  the  labor 
of  modern  British  Guiana  is  drawn,  for  its  cosmopolitan 
population  is  now,  in  its  own  way,  one  of  the  most  re- 
markable in  the  world. 

All  that  need  be  said  about  British  Guiana  in  this  place 
is  that  it  stands  apart  from  the  rest  of  the  continent  as  a 
British  possession,  and,  for  this  reason,  breathes  out  the 
atmosphere  of  the  West  Indies  rather  than  that  of  the 
mainland. 

Those  who  visit  Guiana  may  know  at  once  that  it  is  a 
British  colony  not  only  from  the  speech  of  the  inhabi- 
tants, but  from  the  type  of  buildings  and  the  manner  in 
which  the  streets  of  the  towns  are  laid  out.  In  such  re- 
spects there  is  little  doubt  but  that  the  Briton — notwith- 
standing that  the  hub  of  his  empire  is  in  the  foggy 
North — understands  from  an  old-standing  and  world- 
wide experience  better  than  any  other  nation  how  to 
adapt  his  habits  and  homes  to  the  tropics. 


160     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

The  old  naval  records  concerning  Guiana  abound  in 
incidents  that  savor  of  Marryat.  The  easy-going  colo- 
nial existence  evoked  a  conviviality  that  in  turn  gave 
birth  to  cocktails,  and  similar  inventions  upon  which  the 
tropical  thirst  might  prey.  All  this  was  responsible  for 
a  certain  hospitable  recklessness  which  nothing  but  the 
modern  god  of  Moderation  has  tended  to  diminish ! 

Although  the  more  important  circumstances  of  British 
Guiana  do  not  enter  into  this  book,  we  may  deal  with  a 
chance  incident  which  is  not  without  interest.  Life  in 
the  colony  in  the  first  years  of  the  nineteenth  century 
seems  to  have  been  unpleasantly  enlivened  by  the  pres- 
ence of  a  notorious  duelist  of  the  name  of  Blair,  who, 
a  dead  shot,  haunted  that  British  possession  as  well 
as  the  West  Indies,  marking  do^vn  his  victims  and  kill- 
ing his  men.  One  of  the  incidents  of  this  man's  career 
is  suggestive  of  the  pages  not  only  of  Marryat  but  of 
Lever. 

It  occurred  when  the  officers  of  his  Majesty's  sloop-of- 
war  Pheasant  were  dining  ashore  at  the  house  of  a  Mr. 
Maxwell,  a  resident  of  Bridgetown.  After  dinner  Blair 
unexpectedly  put  in  an  appearance.  Without  a  doubt  this 
sinister  person  had  already  worked  out  his  plan,  for  al- 
most immediately  he  began  to  tell  the  British  officers  in 
a  most  insulting  fashion  of  a  French  privateer  then  fitting 
out  at  Guadeloupe  which,  he  asserted  offensively,  would 
drive  any  British  sloop-of-war  from  the  station !  For  a 
time  the  British  officers  kept  silence,  out  of  respect  for 
their  mortified  host.  This  did  not  fit  in  with  Blair's  pro- 
gram, and  the  professional  duelist  continued  his  aggres- 
sions, until  Captain  Robert  Henderson  told  him,  quite 
briefly,  that,  unless  he  ceased,  he  would  throw  him  out 
of  the  window.  On  this  Blair  left  abruptly,  and  in  a 
few  minutes  arrived  his  invitation  to  come  out  and  be 
shot.  Henderson,  as  the  challenged,  had  the  choice  of 
weapons.  He  chose  pistols:  distance,  across  a  handker- 
chief, the  antagonists  to  be  foot  to  foot!     When  he  and 


BRITISH  GUIANA  161 

his  second  arrived  on  the  ground,  it  was,  and  remained, 
undarkened  by  the  shadow  of  the  bully ! 

The  blow  to  Blair's  prestige  must  have  been  consider- 
able. Had  he  lived  in  a  work  of  fiction  he  would  have 
sunk  at  one  full  swoop,  and  would  have  been  put  out  of 
harm's  way  forever.  Alas  for  the  injustices  of  mere 
fact !  This  was  not  so.  Blair  appears  to  have  lost  little 
time  in  learning  to  ruffle  his  feathers  again,  for  he  suc- 
ceeded in  sending  a  bullet  through  many  a  better  than 
he  after  that,  his  last  victim  being  an  officer  of  high  rank 
at  Demerara. 

The  Falkland  Islands  are  supposed  to  have  been  sighted 
by  Davis  in  1592  and  more  closely  visited  by  Richard 
Hawkins  in  1594.  The  name  which  the  latter  gave  to 
them,  Hawkins'  Maidenland,  was  only  in  accordance  with 
the  spirit  of  the  age  which  devoted  itself  to  bringing 
bouquets  of  nomenclature  to  the  virgin  queen.  But  this 
effort  of  brave  old  Richard's  savors  of  a  more  daring 
tenderness  than  the  majority. 

The  first  regular  British  colony,  founded  in  1766,  was 
ejected  in  1770  by  a  powerful  Spanish  force  after  the 
exchange  of  a  few  cannon  shot,  sent  to  and  fro  for  the 
sake  of  appearances  rather  than  for  anything  else,  since 
the  British  were  in  no  position  to  offer  an  effective  re- 
sistance. The  following  year,  however,  they  were  re- 
stored by  Spain  to  England. 

There  were  some  attempts  to  colonize  the  islands  in 
1774  and  in  1776.  In  the  latter  year  Captain  McBride 
rendered  a  depressing  account  of  them.    He  says : 

''We  found  a  mass  of  islands  and  broken  lands,  of 
which  the  soil  was  nothing  but  a  bog,  with  no  better  pros- 
pect than  that  of  barren  mountains,  beaten  by  storms  al- 
most perpetual.  Yet  this  is  summer;  and  if  the  winds 
of  winter  hold  their  natural  proportion,  those  who  lie  but 
two  cables  length  from  the  shore,  must  pass  weeks  with- 
out any  communication  with  it." 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  this  description  was  very  far  from 


162     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

doing  justice  to  the  island,  which,  notwithstanding  its 
rather  desolate  situation,  has  proved  itself  an  admirable 
center  for  sheep-raising. 

In  1820  a  Buenos  Aires  frigate  visited  the  Falkland 
Islands.  She  was  commanded  by  a  Mr.  Jewitt,  whose 
title  appears  to  have  been  *' Colonel  of  the  Marine  of 
the  United  Provinces  of  South  America."  He  formally 
took  possession  of  the  islands  in  the  name  of  the  Patriot 
Government  of  Buenos  Aires,  and  it  is  on  this  account 
that  Argentina  argues  the  irregularity  of  our  tenure  of 
the  islands.  There  is  no  doubt,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  that 
the  Buenos  Aires  Government  did  hold  possession  of 
these  islands  for  a  time,  for  when  H.M.  sloop  Clio  visited 
them  in  1833  a  garrison  of  twenty-five  Buenos  Aires 
troops  were  found  at  the  spot,  as  well  as  some  settlers, 
who  retired  in  company  with  the  garrison. 

Some  time  after  this  the  group  was  given  the  dubious 
state  of  a  penal  settlement,  but  in  1852  this  establishment 
was  done  away  with,  and  soon  afterwards  the  beginning 
of  the  present  prosperity  of  the  island  began  to  set  in. 

These  islands,  of  course,  have  recently  attained  to  a 
sentimental  importance  in  history  such  as  they  never  be- 
fore possessed;  for  it  was  the  naval  battle  of  the  Falk- 
land Islands  that  avenged  the  destruction  of  Admiral 
Craddock's  squadron  and  vindicated  the  supremacy  of 
the  white  ensign,  that  was  never  more  glorious  than  when 
it  sank,  unconquered  beneath  the  waves  of  the  Pacific. 


CHAPTER  IX 

BRITISH  FIGHTEES  IN  THE  CAUSE  OF  SOUTH  AMERICAN 
INDEPENDENCE 

(i) 

Attitude  of  the  British  Government — Sympathy  extended  toward  the  South 
Americans — Visions  of  state — Docimient  drawn  up  by  tlie  South  Ameri- 
cans— ^Some  striking  clauses — Instances  of  Latin  foresight — Alliances 
and  the  Panama  Canal  as  viewed  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury— Procedure  of  the  United  States  and  of  Great  Britain — Miranda 
and  recruiting  facilities — An  Irish  writer  in  the  "Caracas  Gazette" — 
The  most  notable  British  eye-witnesses  of  the  war — Admiral  Coch- 
rane, General  Miller,  Captain  Basil  Hall,  and  an  anonymous  chronicler 
— Social  opportunities  enjoyed  by  these — Bolivar  and  San  Martin — Dif- 
fering circumstances  of  the  Northern  and  Southern  campaigns — War- 
like ethics  of  the  tropics  and  of  the  temperate  latitudes — Ferocity  of 
the  Northern  campaign — Types  of  leaders — The  British  legion  reproved 
for  giving  quarter — Merciless  methods  employed  by  the  Spaniards — 
Eevenge  of  tlie  South  Americans — Sir  George  McGregor — Fine  perform- 
ances of  his  volunteers — Colonel  English  recruits  in  England — Force 
raised  by  Major  Beamish — Death  of  that  officer — Arrival  of  General 
English  with  two  thousand  seasoned  British  troops — General  Devereux 
obtains  two  thousand  men  in  Ireland — Some  notable  officers — Effects 
of  the  climate  and  food  on  the  newcomers — Beef  or  sugar-cane  as  ra- 
tions— Sickness  and  death  in  the  ranks — Lamentable  conditions  of  the 
corps — Creature  and  climatic  pests — Early  relations  between  the  Brit- 
ish and  South  American  troops — The  British  distinguish  themselves  in 
their  first  action — Removal  of  mutual  misconceptions — Battle  of  Boy- 
aca — Prestige  of  the  British  legion — Attempted  detention  of  General 
English's  force  at  Trinidad — General  Urdineta — Colonel  Blossett's  duel 
— Contemporary  opinion  of  General  English — General  Devereux — His 
methods  of  recruiting — Composition  of  his  force — Arrival  of  the  corps 
in  South  America — Consequences  of  a  reckless  sale  of  commissions — 
General  Devereux  lands  in  South  America — Humorous  contemporary 
description  of  his  arrival — Father  O'Mullin — Incidents  at  the  official 
reception — Devereux's  character — His  subsequent  conduct — Story  of 
the  Irish  legion — Conduct  of  the  British  and  Irish  legions  at  the  battle 
of  Carabobo — The  two  corps  are  united — Prowess  of  Captain  Rush — 
Death   of    Captain    Chamberlayne — Feat    of    an    Irish    officer — "Town 

163 


164     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

Taker" — The  secret  treasure-chamber  of  Barcelona  Cathedral — The 
jewels  of  St.  Lawrence — Stories  spread  by  the  priests  concerning  the 
British — A  tailed  race  of  cannibals — British  sailors  in  Bolivar's  fleet 
— Admiral  Brion — An  eccentric  naval  commander-in-chief — His  con- 
duct and  uniform — Some  British  naval  officers — Bolivar's  relations 
with  the  British  troops — Temperament  and  peculiarities  of  the  Libera- 
tor— His  activity  and  bravery — Abstemious  habits — jNIrs.  English — 
Episode  at  her  ball — Privileges  obtained  by  certain  officers. 

EVEN  before  the  actual  outbreak  of  the  War  of  In- 
dependence the  sentiments  of  the  British  cabinet 
toward  the  South  American  patriots  were  plainly 
of  the  most  friendly  nature.  Canning  was  deeply  at- 
tached to  their  cause,  and  Pitt  had  more  than  once  been 
on  the  eve  of  active  intervention,  although  in  1806  Mr. 
Fox  protested  that  the  liberation  of  South  America  was 
not  part  of  his  government 's  program. 

Notwithstanding  this,  the  keenest  interest  was  taken  by 
the  British  in  the  doings  of  the  patriots,  both  in  Europe 
and  in  South  America.  Sympathy  was  extended  in  the 
most  genuine  fashion,  although  it  must  be  admitted  that 
some  of  the  anticipations  were  by  no  means  altogether 
disinterested.  There  were  serious  hopes,  for  instance, 
that  the  South  Americans,  once  freed  from  the  yoke  of 
Spain,  might  turn  to  Great  Britain,  and  incorporate  them- 
selves in  that  liberal  empire.  It  was  a  stupendous  dream. 
Had  something  beyond  half  measures  been  taken  to  ma- 
terialize it — and  the  sending  of  an  incapable  commander 
in  charge  of  a  British  force  is  surely  a  half  measure — the 
history  of  the  temperate  portions  of  South  America  might 
have  been  different,  although,  as  subsequent  events  have 
proved,  it  would  not  have  run  so  natural  and  so  Latin  a 
course.  But,  so  far  as  the  entire  continent  was  con- 
cerned, that  is  another  story  altogether,  and  here  un- 
doubtedly the  vision  was  very  thin  and  dim.  Captain 
Cochrane  has  an  interesting  reference  to  a  document 
which  was  drawn  up  on  the  22nd  of  December,  1797,  by 
the  representatives  of  South  America.  This  contained 
various  proposals,   and  was   entrusted  to  the  famous 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  INDEPENDENCE  165 

South  American,  Miranda,  to  place  before  the  British 
cabinet. 

This  document  was  a  striking  instrument,  and  it  clearly 
proves  the  intellect  and  ambitious  foresight  of  those  who 
combined  to  draw  it  up.  One  of  its  early  clauses  stipu- 
lated that  Great  Britain  should  render  to  the  South  Amer- 
icans a  specified  amount  of  military  assistance  toward  the 
attainment  of  their  independence  in  return  for  a  payment 
of  thirty  millions  sterling.  Other  clauses  related  to  a 
commercial  treaty  between  Great  Britain  and  South 
America,  a  connection  between  the  Bank  of  England  and 
those  of  Lima  and  Mexico,  and  a  project  of  alliance  be- 
tween the  United  States  and  South  America.  But,  in 
the  light  of  the  affairs  of  to-day,  the  most  salient  clauses 
concerned  a  defensive  alliance  between  Great  Britain,  the 
United  States  of  America,  and  South  America,  and  the 
opening  of  the  navigation  between  the  Atlantic  and  Pa- 
cific oceans  by  cutting  across  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  and 
the  guarantee  of  its  freedom  of  the  British  nation ! 

Surely  this  document  needs  no  comment.  They  were 
very  remarkable  men,  those  Latin  Americans  who  worked 
in  the  midst  of  a  political  chaos  for  the  freedom  of  their 
continent,  and  whose  genius  is  slowly  revealing  itself  like 
true  ears  of  corn  now  that  the  chaff  of  a  century  is  blow- 
ing away ! 

The  British  Government  must  have  been  not  a  little  im- 
pressed by  this,  for  it  would  appear  that  in  1798  they 
made  an  actual  offer  to  provide  money  and  ships,  pro- 
viding that  the  United  States  would  provide  ten  thou- 
sand troops.  The  United  States  avoided  a  definite  reply, 
and  the  matter,  in  consequence,  fell  through. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  it  was  a  not  unusual  vacillation 
in  the  first  place,  and  an  altered  European  political  and 
militant  situation  in  the  second,  that  prevented  the  offi- 
cial participation  of  the  English  a  few  years  later.  On 
the  other  hand,  every  private  encouragement  was  given. 
British  ministers  in  London  clapped  the  visiting  South 


166     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

Americans  on  the  back ;  Miranda  was  given  permission  to 
recruit  in  Trinidad  and  Barbados,  while  in  England  muni- 
tions were  made  ready,  and  volunteers  prepared  them- 
selves for  action. 

Curiously  enough,  too,  an  Irishman  of  the  name  of 
Burke  wrote  in  1811  a  series  of  stirring  articles  in  the 
*' Caracas  Gazette,"  urging  the  establishment  of  a  free 
constitution  for  Venezuela.  These,  one  imagines,  must 
have  been  translated  from  English  into  the  Spanish 
tongue. 

In  dealing  with  the  British  soldiers  and  sailors  who 
fought  on  the  patriot  side  on  the  actual  outbreak  of  the 
war  there  can  be  no  attempt  to  catalogue,  still  less  to  de- 
scribe, the  infinitely  numerous  deeds  and  events  in  which 
they  were  concerned.  The  aim  of  these  chapters  is 
merely  to  show  what  type  of  men  these  were,  with  what 
types  of  men  they  were  brought  into  contact,  and  to  ex- 
hibit something  of  the  tragedies  and  occasional  quaint 
humors  of  the  South  American  campaigns. 

The  first  cursory  study  of  Admiral  Cochrane 's  life 
alone  would  demonstrate  the  impossibility  of  dealing  with 
the  historical  side  proper  of  these  subjects  in  anything 
short  of  bulky  volume  form.  If  these  notes,  therefore, 
appear  of  an  unduly  fragmentary  nature  this  must  be 
their  excuse. 

Of  all  those  British  who  participated  in,  or  witnessed 
and  chronicled,  the  events  of  the  revolutionary  wars  in 
the  south  of  the  continent,  perhaps  the  most  notable  from 
the  standpoint  of  their  associations  and  breadth  of  view 
were  Admiral  Cochrane,  General  Miller,  and  Captain 
Basil  Hall.  Moreover,  the  experiences  of  each  of  the 
three  form  the  natural  complement  of  those  of  the  other 
two.  Admiral  Cochrane,  as  commander-in-chief  of  the 
patriot  Pacific  fleet,  represented  the  young  South  Amer- 
ican navy ;  Miller  held  high  command  in  the  patriot  land- 
forces,  and  Captain  Basil  Hall,  as  a  most  able  and  intelli- 
gent officer  in  charge  of  a  British  warship  on  the  South 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  INDEPENDENCE  167 

American  coast,  had,  as  a  spectator,  rare  opportunities 
of  which  he  took  the  fullest  advantage. 

Among  the  most  graphic  chroniclers  of  the  Northern 
campaign  was  the  British  ex-naval  officer  who  anony- 
mously wrote  his  *' Recollections  of  a  Service  of  three 
years  in  Venezuela  and  Colombia." 

This  may  appear  as  a  somewhat  arbitrary  selection  out 
of  the  multitude  of  British  who  distinguished  themselves 
to  a  greater  or  lesser  degree  in  the  patriot  cause.  But 
very  few  of  the  other  gallant  men  possessed,  in  addition 
to  their  knowledge  of  the  war,  the  civil  and  social  expe- 
rience in  South  America  of  those  I  have  named.  Each 
of  these  was  brought  into  contact  not  only  with  nearly 
every  leading  figure  of  the  young  South  American  com- 
munities but  with  the  generals  of  the  decaying  Spanish 
cause  as  well. 

Three  of  these,  moreover,  obtained  a  certain  insight 
into  the  politer  domestic  life  of  the  Pacific  coast  of  that 
day,  and  each  of  the  three  knew  the  two  greatest  char- 
acters of  the  militant  revolution — the  gallant  San  Mar- 
tin, of  the  South,  reserved  and  diffident  almost  to  the 
point  of  shyness  in  the  hours  of  his  greatest  victories; 
and  the  equally  brave  Bolivar,  of  the  North,  self-cen- 
tered and  with  brilliant  virtues  slightly  tinged  w^ith 
theatrical  elements,  who  entered  the  liberated  cities  to 
the  noise  of  cannon,  the  pealing  of  bells,  and  the  blar- 
ings  of  brass  instruments,  and  who  rejoiced  in  such 
triumphal  processions  as  that  when  his  carriage  was 
drawn  by  one  of  the  fairest  bevies  of  young  girls  imagin- 
able dressed  in  festal  white. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  these  distinctions  in  the  tempera- 
ments of  the  two  greatest  South  American  leaders  were 
eminently  appropriate  to  their  circumstances.  Bolivar 
flamed  out  as  the  emotional  child  of  the  brilliant  tropics. 
San  Martin  represented  the  restraint  and  comparative 
phlegm  of  the  white  race  of  the  South.  To  lead  the  en- 
tire continent  even  of  to-day,  the  cooperation  of  a  Bolivar 


168     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

and  of  a  San  Martin  would  be  every  bit  as  necessary  as 
it  was  then. 

From  the  British  point  of  view  the  campaign  of  the 
North  differed  widely  in  the  manner  of  its  conduct  from 
that  of  the  South.  The  British  who  fought  under  Bolivar 
amid  the  tropical  plains,  streams,  mountains,  and  for- 
ests of  Colombia  and  Venezuela  either  formed  a  separate 
corps  of  their  own,  or  made  up  the  entire  complement  of 
the  ofScef  s  of  an  Indian  regiment.  In  the  South,  on  the 
other  hand,  under  San  Martin,  the  British  who  came  out 
to  play  their  part  in  the  War  of  Independence  took  serv- 
ice in  the  ordinary  way  with  such  South  American  regi- 
ments as  were  already  in  being. 

In  either  case  the  volunteers  had  committed  themselves 
to  a  sufficiently  strenuous  life.  But,  whereas  in  the  South 
the  British  found  themselves  surrounded  by  men  with 
whom  they  had  from  the  start  a  great  deal  in  common, 
and  in  the  midst  of  pleasant  conditions  of  nature  to  which 
they  rapidly  became  accustomed,  those  others  who  fought 
in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Equator  found  themselves  in 
less  fortunate  case. 

Apart  from  the  circumstances  of  climate  and  diet  to 
which  the  British  troops  took  a  considerable  time  to  ac- 
custom themselves,  the  ferocity  with  which  the  campaign 
was  waged  in  the  North  had  no  parallel  in  the  South. 
The  Northern  generals  were  of  all  sorts  and  conditions  of 
men.  There  were  one  or  two  who  possessed  an  intellect 
almost  comparable  with  that  of  Bolivar ;  though  no  other 
possessed  his  genius.  There  were  brave  and  chivalrous, 
if  completely  unlettered,  guerilla  leaders  such  as  Paez. 
But  there  were  many  others  who  rose  like  dusky  foam 
to  the  top  of  a  critical  situation  by  mere  brute  force  and 
an  unscrupulous  intrigue  of  which  even  the  most  ignorant 
can  be  capable.  Moreover,  since  the  ordinary  Northern 
troops  were  almost  entirely  of  Indian  and  Negro  blood, 
with  a  mere  sprinkling  of  white  officers,  the  measures  in 
retaliation  for  the  atrocities  initiated  by  the  Spaniards 


u^'.^'^  % 


^-^/■^...J'" 


GENER.\L   SAN  MARTIN 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  INDEPENDENCE  169 

were  only  too  thorough.  On  more  than  one  occasion  the 
British  legion  was  officially  reproved  for  not  having  par- 
ticipated in  the  slaughter  that  was  decreed  by  the  exigen- 
cies of  a  war  of  extermination  to  follow  a  victory. 

Certainly  nothing  could  have  raised  the  passions  of 
the  Northern  people  more  effectually  than  the  Spanish 
methods.  That  they  were  not  the  work  of  the  better  class 
Spanish  regulars  will  be  evident  when  the  nature  of  these 
deeds  is  considered.  From  the  earliest  days  of  the  war 
it  had  been  agreed  that  no  quarter  should  be  offered  or 
accepted  on  either  side.  The  massacre  of  surrendered 
garrisons  was,  therefore,  an  aifair  which  was  accepted 
as  a  matter  of  course.  To  what  lengths  this  calculated 
policy  was  carried  may  be  gathered  from  some  sentences 
of  an  intercepted  letter  from  General  Morillo  to  the  king 
of  Spain :  They  refer  to  the  royalist  entry  into  Bogota : 
''Every  person,  of  either  sex,  who  was  capable  of  read- 
ing and  writing,  was  put  to  death.  By  thus  cutting  off 
all  who  were  in  any  way  educated,  I  hoped  to  effectually 
arrest  the  spirit  of  revolution." 

But  there  were  more  terrible  methods  of  repression 
practised  even  than  these.  British  officers  have  testi- 
fied to  the  sight  of  South  American  women  whose  ears 
and  noses  had  been  cut  off ;  others  had  lost  their  eyes  or 
their  tongues,  while  others  again  had  had  the  soles  of 
their  feet  pared  off.  It  is  needless  to  dig  deeper  into 
this  catalogue  of  horrors.  The  South  Americans  had 
their  revenge,  and  in  one  place  alone  a  pile  of  over  seven 
thousand  dried  Spanish  skulls  bore  witness  to  this ! 

It  seems  clear,  nevertheless  that  such  practices  were 
foreign  to  the  true  inclinations  of  the  dwellers  in  the 
Northern  States.  Captain  Cochrane,  who  entertained  a 
high  regard  for  the  Colombians,  remarked  of  them: 
''They  have  certainly  a  desire  to  adopt  English  manners 
and  customs,  and  give  a  decided  preference  to  everything 
English.  This  may  be  thus  accounted  for :  first,  that  for 
a  long  period  England  was  the  country  that  furnished 


170     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

them,  through  Jamaica  (by  means  of  the  contraband 
trade)  with  all  the  comforts  or  luxuries  of  life,  and  conse- 
quently gave  them  a  relish  for  everything  English,  and 
engendered  a  kindly  feeling  toward  the  inhabitants  of  a 
country  which  supplied  all  their  wants ;  and,  secondly,  be- 
cause the  natural  turn  of  a  native  Colombian  much  more 
assimilates  with  the  character  of  an  Englishman  than  that 
of  any  other  nation  in  Europe ;  for  he  is  reserved,  thought- 
ful, and  fond  of  commercial  pursuits.  Though  polite  and 
desirous  to  oblige  on  first  introduction,  yet,  like  an  Eng- 
lishman, he  requires  time,  and  a  knowledge  of  your  char- 
acter, before  he  becomes  intimate,  and  then  you  find  him 
to  be  an  excellent  and  valuable  friend. ' ' 

The  first  British  troops  who  seem  to  have  taken  part 
in  the  Northern  War  of  Liberation  comprised  a  small 
body  of  men  brought  out  by  Sir  Gregor  McGregor. 
These,  when  they  had  once  accustomed  themselves  to  the 
climate,  performed  such  admirable  services  that  more  of 
their  kind  were  in  great  demand  in  Colombia.  On  this 
a  gentleman  of  the  name  of  English,  who  is  said  to  have 
been  in  the  British  commissariat  service  and  who  was  in 
Colombia  at  the  time,  made  an  agreement  with  the  patriot 
government  to  raise  a  new  corps  in  England.  Having 
been  given  the  rank  of  colonel  in  the  Colombian  service, 
he  departed  for  this  purpose,  in  which  he  was  eventually 
successful. 

In  the  meantime  a  Major  Beamish,  a  retired  British 
officer,  had  busied  himself  in  Ireland  in  raising  a  small 
corps  for  the  Colombian  service.  Entirely  of  his  own 
initiative  he  got  together,  armed,  and  equipped  three 
hundred  men,  and,  having  purchased  a  vessel  of  two  hun- 
dred and  eighty  tons,  he  set  out  with  them  for  Colombia. 
As  fortune  would  have  it,  this  enterprising  officer  died 
suddenly  of  apoplexy  on  the  voyage;  but  his  contingent 
arrived  safely  at  its  destination,  on  the  28th  of  August, 
1818,  and  subsequently  played  a  gallant  part  in  the  cam- 
paign. 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  INDEPENDENCE  171 

In  due  course  Colonel  English,  now  promoted  to  the 
rank  of  general,  arrived  at  the  island  of  Margarita  with 
a  force  of  two  thousand  splendid  British  troops  drawn 
from  the  Peninsula  veterans  of  the  regular  army.  A 
little  later  a  Mr.  Devereux,  who  was  given  the  rank  of 
general  in  the  Colombian  army,  raised  some  two  thou- 
sand raw  recruits  in  Ireland,  and  caused  these  to  be 
transported,  in  unfavorable  circumstances,  to  Colombia. 

Such  are  the  main  facts  concerning  the  arrival  of  the 
British  forces.  Many  of  the  officers  engaged  had  dis- 
tinguished themselves  in  previous  campaigns.  Some  of 
the  most  prominent  of  these  were  Eooke,  Ferrier,  Mackin- 
tosh, Sir  Gregor  McGregor,  Lyster,  Sandes,  Pigot,  Keen, 
Hamilton,  Wilson,  Manby,  Woodberry,  Blossett,  Stop- 
ford,  Davy ;  to  say  nothing  of  Francis  Mageroni,  Murat's 
aide-de-camp,  who  became  an  Englishman,  and  was  with 
Sir  Gregor  McGregor  at  the  capture  of  Puerto  Bello, 
ultimately  becoming  a  general  in  the  Colombian  service. 

Having  now  dealt  with  these  main  features,  we  may 
turn  to  some  of  the  details  of  the  men  and  actions.  On 
the  landing  of  the  first  British  contingent  on  Venezuelan 
soil  the  prospects  of  the  newcomers  appeared  anything 
but  rosy.  So  abrupt  was  the  change  of  food  and  climate 
that  the  effect  of  these  circumstances  was  in  the  first 
place  disastrous  to  the  British  troops,  though  for  the 
most  part  these  were  splendid  and  war-seasoned  men. 

The  officers  were  a  fine  set,  almost  entirely  obtained 
from  the  regular  British  army,  who  had  been  attracted 
by  the  offer  of  a  corresponding  rank  in  the  Colombian 
army  to  that  which  they  held  in  their  own.  But  the 
health  of  not  even  the  most  seasoned  of  the  veterans  of 
the  rank  and  file  could  withstand  the  rations  which  were 
served  out  to  them,  and  to  which  the  native  troops  were 
accustomed.  These  consisted  purely  and  simply  of  three 
pounds  of  beef  distributed  each  day — and  not  a  single 
grain  of  anything  beyond,  whether  in  the  shape  of  salt, 
bread,  or  vegetables! 


172     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

This  was  the  fare  to  which  the  soldiers  had  to  accus- 
tom themselves  in  the  grazing  country.  When  in  the 
sugar-cane  districts,  they  found  that  a  similar  lack  of 
variety  obtained ;  for  here  a  regime  of  sugar-cane  served 
for  every  meal,  although  it  must  be  admitted  that  from 
time  to  time  a  few  plantains  were  forthcoming  by  way 
of  special  gratification ! 

The  effects  of  this  extraordinary  diet,  and  of  the 
numerous  privations  suffered,  soon  became  evident.  Dy- 
sentery and  other  forms  of  sickness  played  havoc  with 
the  ranks  of  the  British.  In  consequence  of  this  when 
they  first  attempted  to  take  part  in  the  strenuous  marches 
of  the  patriot  forces  the  results  were  lamentable.  Day 
after  day  men  fell  out  of  the  ranks  to  die  by  the  roadside : 
others  were  mounted  on  horses,  to  the  backs  of  which 
their  weak  condition  only  just  enabled  them  to  cling.  A 
contemporary  asserts  that  the  unfortunate  corps  ''soon 
appeared  more  like  a  field  hospital  than  a  battalion  fit 
for  duty  in  front  of  an  enemy,  and  served  only  as  a 
laughing  stock  and  ridicule  for  the  other  troops,  who 
were  inured  to  the  climate  and  bad  fare. ' ' 

All  this  was  to  say  nothing  of  the  insect  pests,  jiggers, 
thorns  which  tore  the  uniforms  wholesale  from  the  men's 
backs,  and  small,  fierce  fish  which  bit  entire  mouthfuls 
from  their  legs  as  they  forded  shallow  streams.  There 
was  the  mountain  sickness,  too,  the  Soroche,  which  in  the 
loftiest  altitudes  frequently  ended  fatally. 

Soldiering  in  Venezuela  and  Colombia  held  many  ex- 
periences which  were  disconcerting  to  a  degree,  and  here 
the  matter  was  rendered  worse  by  an  ignorance  of  those 
precautions  which  a  tropical  climate  demands  of  the  new- 
comer. As  a  result  of  all  this  a  battalion  which  had 
landed  three  hundred  and  fifty  strong  could,  after  two 
or  three  months,  muster  no  more  than  one  hundred  and 
fifty  men!  And  these  were  sorry-looking  specimens  of 
humanity,  clad  in  a  few  rags  and  tatters. 

Thus,  curiously  enough,  the  actual  first  entry  into  South 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  INDEPENDENCE  173 

America  of  the  British  troops  who  were  destined  to  win 
for  themselves  so  high  a  reputation  there  was  achieved 
under  the  most  unpromising  auspices.  Before  the  es- 
tablishment of  the  subsequent  cordial  relationship  be- 
tween them  and  the  South  Americans,  a  sentiment  of 
mutual  depreciation  obtained;  for  in  the  first  place  the 
British  mistook  the  sound  strategy  of  the  continuous 
patriot  retreats  for  an  aversion  to  meet  the  enemy. 

This  condition  of  affairs  continued  until  the  British 
went  into  action  against  the  Spaniards  for  the  first  time. 
When  the  engagement  was  over  they  had  lost  a  third  of 
their  number  in  killed  and  wounded,  their  commander, 
Colonel  Eooke — a  fine  officer,  who  had  been  aide-de-camp 
to  the  Prince  of  Orange  at  Waterloo — being  among  the 
latter,  and  subsequently  dying  of  his  hurts.  Of  the  re- 
maining officers.  Lieutenant  Kaisley  was  killed,  and  Lieu- 
tenant M'Manus  was  wounded. 

But,  mauled  though  it  had  been,  the  affair  had  been  a 
triumph  for  the  small  British  force.  Backed  by  their 
now  admiring  patriot  allies,  they  had  fought  their  way 
with  the  bayonet  inch  by  inch  uphill,  and,  together  with 
General  Paez's  cavalry,  had  with  reckless  gallantry 
turned  a  threatening  defeat  into  victory.  And  it  was 
now  for  the  first  time  that  they  themselves  saw  the  real 
fighting  qualities  of  the  South  Americans.  The  roar  of 
battle  had  drowned  the  mutual  misconceptions  for  good 
and  all. 

"And  what  do  you  think  of  the  British  now?"  asked 
Doctor  Foley  of  General  Ansuartagui,  who  had  recently 
taken  to  an  open  expression  of  doubt  as  to  whether  these 
Northern  troops  were  even  worth  their  daily  three  pounds 
of  beef. 

"They're  worth  their  weight  in  gold,"  confessed  the 
General  frankly,  and  from  that  moment  his  attitude  to- 
ward the  British  changed  as  completely  as  did  that  of 
his  compatriots. 

The  battle  of  Boyaca,  which  took  place  on  the  7th  of 


174     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

August,  consolidated  the  reputation  of  the  British,  whose 
ranks  had  now  received  some  reinforcements.  In  order 
to  make  good  the  numerous  casualties  suffered  it  was  fre- 
quently found  necessary  to  incorporate  South  American 
troops  in  the  Albion  battalion.  In  connection  with  this, 
Captain  Cochrane  remarks:  "The  British  had  become 
at  length  such  good  marchers,  that  they  always  formed 
the  advance-guard  of  the  army,  being  now  complained  of 
as  marching  too  fast,  instead  of  too  slow  as  formerly. 
Such  was  the  esprit  de  corps,  that  the  very  natives  in- 
corporated in  this  battalion  thought  themselves  above  the 
other  soldiers,  and  called  themselves  English,  and  swore 
in  English  by  way  of  keeping  up  their  title. ' ' 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  British  influence  at  this  period 
rapidly  permeated  all  grades  of  society,  and  was  notice- 
able even  in  that  the  Iberian  Viva!  was  superseded  for  a 
considerable  time  by  Hip !     Hip ! !    Huzzah ! ! ! 

In  Colombia  too  it  may  be  said  that  the  British  mer- 
chants showed  at  least  as  much  enterprise  as  elsewhere. 
Many  of  them  provided  important  amounts  of  warlike 
stores,  hoping  to  be  reimbursed  when  the  fall  of  the  city 
of  Angostura  should  endow  the  patriot  coffers  with  im- 
mense treasure.  But  Angostura,  once  captured,  proved 
a  hollow  plum!  Loss  and  disappointment  were  inevit- 
able in  other  directions,  too,  so  long  as  the  patriot  cause 
had  not  definitely  prevailed,  and  the  fluctuations  of  war 
continued. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  a  number  of  the  earliest  flight  of 
these  mercantile  swallows  who  came  in  person  found  that 
they  had  arrived  before  the  true  South  American  sum- 
mer had  set  in !  Numbers,  understanding  nothing  of  the 
climate,  died  of  sickness,  while  others  underwent  perils 
of  another  order.  Thus,  when  the  Spanish  General 
Morillo  recaptured  Cartagena,  he  seized  all  the  British 
and  foreign  merchants,  and  would  have  shot  them  all, 
but  for  the  interference  of  the  British  admiral  on  the 
West  India  station.     Surely  experiences  such  as  these 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  INDEPENDENCE  175 

justified  a  considerable  financial  profit — which  did  not 
always  materialize. 

When  General  English  arrived  in  Venezuela  he  was 
in  charge  of  two  thousand  troops  of  as  fine  a  quality  as 
had  ever  left  England.  Having  found  himself  financially 
unable  to  cope  with  his  important  contract,  he  had  handed 
this  over  to  a  Mr.  Herring,  a  prominent  London  mer- 
chant, who  had  completed  his  share  of  the  bargain  in  a 
most  liberal  and  praiseworthy  fashion.  At  the  end  of  a 
voyage  carried  out  in  well-appointed  vessels  the  men 
landed  on  Venezuelan  soil  finely  uniformed  and  equipped. 

The  voyage  had  not  passed  without  incident,  for  at 
Trinidad,  the  local  authorities,  at  the  instance  of  the  gov- 
ernor of  the  island.  Sir  Ealph  Woodford,  had  made  an 
attempt  to  detain  the  expedition.  As  a  result  a  sea-en- 
counter ensued  between  some  small  local  vessels  and  the 
expeditionary  ships,  assisted  by  a  Venezuelan  corvette 
officered  and  manned  by  Englishmen,  which  ended  in  the 
discomfiture  of  the  former. 

On  its  landing  in  Venezuela,  General  English's  force 
appears  to  have  suffered  in  the  same  way  as  the  rest 
from  the  local  climate  and  food.  General  Urdineta,  more- 
over, under  whose  command  they  were  placed,  took  very 
little  pains  to  render  himself  popular  with  the  newcomers, 
and  appears  to  have  been  cordially  disliked. 

It  was  undoubtedly  largely  owing  to  the  behavior  of 
this  general  that  in  the  early  days  of  their  arrival  the 
British  troops  suffered  some  slights,  and  that  their  re- 
monstrances on  the  subject  of  arrears  of  pay  were  frig- 
idly received.  It  was  on  account  of  this  that  Colonel 
Blossett  fought  a  duel  with,  and  wounded,  a  Venezuelan 
brigadier-general,  and  thus  was  one  of  the  first  to  mani- 
fest a  spirit  that  compelled  respect. 

General  English  himself  appears  to  have  faithfully 
carried  out  all  his  duties;  but  he  does  not  seem  to  have 
possessed  the  temperament  of  a  born  soldier.  A  con- 
temporary opinion  of  him  was  that,  "as  an  officer  he  was 


176     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

destitute  of  energy,  and  experience ;  as  a  man  he  was  gen- 
erous and  open-hearted.  All  that  can  be  said  of  him  in 
reference  to  his  conduct  as  commander  of  the  British 
legion  is,  that  he  mistook  his  profession,  for  which  in- 
deed he  was  physically  unfitted." 

The  character  of  Devereux,  who  raised  the  chief  Irish 
legion,  appears  to  have  been  rather  complex.  It  is  said 
that,  the  son  of  an  Irishman  who  suffered  the  extreme 
penalty  of  the  law  for  his  participation  in  the  Irish  re- 
bellion, he  began  his  career  in  mercantile  pursuits  in  the 
United  States.  In  1815  he  went  to  Cartagena,  and  dis- 
cussed with  Bolivar  the  project  of  raising  an  Irish  legion ; 
but  no  steps  appear  to  have  been  taken  in  this  direction 
until  General  English  had  succeeded  in  recruiting  his 
formidable  force  in  England. 

On  this  Devereux  returned  to  Venezuela  and  secured  a 
contract  signed  by  Bolivar.  He  then  proceeded  to  Dub- 
lin, and,  having  announced  his  mission  with  some  pomp, 
he  was  given  a  public  reception.  He  met  with  no  dif- 
ficulty in  raising  recruits,  for  the  cause  in  which  he 
pleaded  appealed  to  the  Hibernian  element  of  romance. 
In  a  very  short  time  he  had  assembled  two  thousand  men. 
Scarcely  any  of  these,  however,  had  the  advantage  of 
knowing  anything  whatever  about  military  life,  and  as  a 
fighting  force  they  represented  completely  raw  material. 

Ofiicers,  too,  were  obtained  almost  entirely  from  the 
civilian  ranks  of  the  higher  classes,  although  some  junior 
officers  in  the  British  army  parted  with  their  commis- 
sions in  order  to  purchase  others  in  the  Venezuelan  ser- 
vice. It  is  said  that  from  the  sale  of  these  commissions 
Devereux  obtained  no  less  than  sixty  thousand  pounds, 
which  he  retained  for  himself. 

Devereux  did  not  accompany  this  force  to  South 
America,  and,  after  suffering  many  privations  on  the 
voyage,  it  was  landed  at  the  island  of  Margarita,  only  to 
have  its  ranks  withered  by  yellow  fever,  of  which  seven 
hundred  and  fifty  men  perished  in  a  short  time. 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  INDEPENDENCE  177 

A  species  of  disillusion  other  than  climatic  awaited  the 
officers  of  the  unfortunate  corps.  In  his  enthusiasm  for 
the  Venezuelan  cause,  and  for  easy  coin,  Devereux  had 
sold  no  fewer  than  one  hundred  and  sixteen  colonel's 
commissions !  Here,  then,  were  the  one  hundred  and  six- 
teen Venezuelan  colonels — many  of  them  mere  youths — 
arrived  on  Venezuelan  soil,  only  to  discover  that  their 
new  government,  ignorant  of  their  commissions,  refused 
them  their  rank,  to  say  nothing  of  its  attendant  pay !  It 
was  the  same  with  numerous  officers  of  other  grades. 
The  chagrin  and  chaos  of  the  raw  army  can  be  imagined. 
Many  of  the  disappointed  officers,  having  secured  a  little 
money  by  the  sale  of  their  personal  effects,  took  passage 
for  the  United  States,  and  departed  for  good.  Some 
are  even  alleged  to  have  died  of  starvation. 

When  General  Devereux  himself  came  out  to  South 
America  the  ferment  had  died  down,  and  despair  and 
death  had  already  sadly  reduced  the  ranks  of  the  legion. 
Devereux  and  his  self-appointed  statf  arrived  in  a  char- 
tered coal-brig.  The  description  of  this  arrival  as  given 
by  the  naval  author  of  **  Recollections  of  a  service  of 
three  years  ...  in  the  Republics  of  Venezuela  and  Col- 
ombia," although  it  savors  a  little  of  bitterness,  is  worth 
giving  here : 

''I  went  on  deck  and  was  saluted  by  a  jolly-looking  old 
fellow  with  a  nose  of  a  deep  rubicund  tint,  who  was  walk- 
ing the  deck,  and  who  asked  me  fifty  questions  in  an  in- 
stant. This  personage  proved  to  be  no  other  than  Father 
0  'Mullin,  an  Irish  Catholic  priest,  who  had  been  induced 
to  join  the  retinue  of  Devereux,  at  the  recommendation 
of  the  celebrated  orator,  Mr.  Daniel  O'Connell  (whose 
son  accompanied  the  leader  as  aide-de-camp)  under  the 
title  of  Chaplain  to  the  Irish  Legion,  and  private  con- 
fessor to  its  promoter.  Father  0 'Mullin,  with  much 
ceremony  and  circumlocution,  informed  me  that  General 
Devereux  was  on  board,  and  requested  me  to  go  below 
into  his  cabin  to  see  him. ' ' 


178     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

He  found  the  General  in  despair,  presenting  a  very  un- 
military  attitude,  as  he  was  under  the  impression  that 
the  ship  had  been  seized  and  that  he  was  about  to  be 
arrested.  Having  been  reassured,  he  was  further  com- 
forted by  the  news  that  an  official  reception  was  being 
prepared  for  him  on  the  following  day.  This  is  our  naval 
author's  account  of  what  followed: 

"Next  morning,  at  the  time  appointed,  I  went  again  to 
the  General,  who  was  far  from  ready.  This  arose  from 
the  time  he  took  to  equip  himself  for  the  occasion,  and 
the  total  ignorance  of  himself  and  suite  of  the  method  of 
arranging  military  appointments,  the  General  and  most 
of  his  staff  (as  he  termed  them)  never  having  been  at- 
tached to  any  army.  .  .  .  The  General's  dresses  were  all 
soldered  up  in  tin  cases,  that  the  luster  of  the  lace  and 
bullion  might  not  be  diminished  by  the  damp  during  the 
voyage.  He  was  busily  engaged  in  opening  them  when 
I  entered  the  cabin  ...  at  length  all  was  clear,  and  we 
beheld  a  most  magnificent  French  field-marshal's  uni- 
form, so  bedizened  with  lace  that  it  seemed  as  if  the 
owner  had  considered  personal  appearance  of  far  more 
consequence  in  a  war-of-extermination  than  discipline  or 
strength  of  numbers. ' ' 

Alas !  On  his  way  to  the  banquet  which  had  been  pre- 
pared Devereux's  horse  endeavored  to  roll  at  the  edge 
of  a  pond,  and  Devereux's  brilliancy  lost  its  first  bloom. 
At  the  banquet  itself  he  found  himself  in  his  element; 
for  oratory  was  one  of  his  strongest  points,  and  he  now 
found  ample  opportunity  for  its  display.  He  spoke  for 
nearly  two  hours,  and  frequently  interrupted  the  officer 
who  translated  his  words  by  such  expressions  as  ''Tell 
'em,  I  '11  destroy  every  Spaniard  in  South  America ;  tell 
'em  that!"  "Say,  that  all  Ireland  is  up  in  their  cause, 
in  consequence  of  my  representations;  tell  'em  that!" 
At  last  the  translator  gave  up  his  task  with  the  despair- 
ing remark :     * '  You  must  wait  till  you  can  tell  them  your- 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  INDEPENDENCE  179 

self,  General,  for  I  never  talked  so  much  before  in  my 
life." 

Undoubtedly  the  manner  of  Devereux's  arrival  was  on 
a  par  with  much  else  connected  with  himself  and  his  un- 
disciplined troops.  That  this  very  sudden  general  was 
an  adventurer,  there  can  be  no  doubt.  But  that  he  was 
totally  specious,  as  has  been  alleged,  seems  very  improb- 
able. What  would  have  been  easier  for  a  thoroughgoing 
scoundrel  than  to  have  gone  off  with  the  money  he  had 
made  from  the  sale  of  commissions,  and  never  to  have 
sailed  to  South  America  at  all? 

At  a  later  period,  moreover,  Devereux  showed  himself 
capable  of  actions  such  as  might  wipe  out  a  good  many 
illicit  sales  of  commissions.  When  Mrs.  English,  the 
widow  of  the  General,  was  grossly  insulted  by  General 
Barino,  the  then  Vice-President  of  the  State,  Devereux, 
hotly  resenting  the  attempted  ill-treatment  of  his  coun- 
trywoman, called  out  the  villainous  high  official,  with  the 
result  that  he  himself  suffered  a  brutal  imprisonment  for 
forty-seven  days,  until  a  public  court-martial  instantly 
acquitted  him. 

Such  acts  as  these  plainly  show  that  General  Devereux 
must  have  possessed  many  good  points,  and  that  prob- 
ably one  of  his  worst  failings  consisted  of  too  fervid  an 
imagination ! 

The  rest  of  the  story  of  the  Irish  legion  may  be  told  in 
a  few  words.  The  first  military  feat  undertaken  by  that 
which  remained  of  the  corps  was  the  capture  of  the  town 
of  Eio  de  la  Hacha.  Here,  finding  a  large  stock  of  bever- 
ages and  food,  they  gave  up  all  idea  of  learning  to  submit 
to  discipline,  and  took  to  plunder  and  excesses.  In  the 
end  a  number  of  them  made  their  way  to  Kingston  in 
the  island  of  Jamaica,  where  they  continued  their  wild 
conduct,  and  became  a  source  of  considerable  trouble  to 
the  authorities.  Of  the  entire  number  some  three  hun- 
dred returned  to  Ireland,  and  a  hundred  and  fifty  re- 


180     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

mained  with  the  patriot  armies,  becoming  trained  into 
excellent  soldiers,  and  eventually  being  incorporated  with 
the  British  legion. 

Of  the  various  actions  in  which  the  British  fought,  the 
most  notable  was  the  decisive  battle  of  Carabobo,  which 
took  place  on  the  24th  of  June,  1821.  The  strength  of 
the  corps  on  this  occasion  was  about  six  hundred,  two 
hundred  of  its  number  having  been  distributed  to  stiffen 
the  ranks  of  the  native  battalions.  Beyond  these  were  a 
hundred  of  the  Irish  legion,  and  some  native  troops  offi- 
cered by  British. 

In  the  course  of  this  engagement  the  British,  under 
Colonel  Mackintosh,  and  the  Irish,  led  by  Colonel  Ferrier, 
going  to  the  aid  of  a  patriot  battalion  which  was  on  the 
point  of  falling  back,  swept  forward  into  the  midst  of  the 
Spaniards  in  an  irresistible  bayonet  charge.  In  this 
Colonel  Ferrier,  bearing  the  regimental  colors,  fell  most 
gallantly  at  the  head  of  his  men.  This  charge,  united  to 
a  furious  onslaught  by  General  Paez's  cavalry,  restored 
the  fortunes  of  the  day,  and  with  this  patriot  victory  died 
the  last  hope  of  the  Spaniards  in  the  North. 

After  the  battle  the  British  and  Irish  legions  were 
united,  and  were  distinguished  by  the  name  of  ' '  The  Regi- 
ment of  Carabobo."  The  corps  received  the  thanks 
of  Bolivar  and  of  the  Colombian  Congress — thanks 
that  were  well  earned,  as  the  casualty  list  showed, 
for  the  British  lost  two-thirds  of  their  number  in  this 
action. 

It  is,  of  course,  impossible  to  enter  here  into  more 
than  one  or  two  of  the  individual  feats  of  the  men  who 
helped  to  make  a  fine  record  in  the  British  military  an- 
nals. Perhaps  one  of  the  most  salient  instances  of  per- 
sonal prowess  was  that  given  by  Captain  Rush,  who  in  the 
action  of  the  28th  of  April  slew  no  less  than  eleven  of  the 
enemy  with  his  own  hands. 

The  tragic  death,  too,  of  Captain  Chamberlayne,  one 
of  Bolivar's  aides-de-camp,  is  worthy  of  more  than  a 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  INDEPENDENCE  181 

passing  word.  Left  with  a  handful  of  men  to  defend 
the  city  of  Cumana  against  a  large  Spanish  force,  he 
held  out  in  the  Casa  Fuerte  in  the  center  of  the  town  until 
the  want  of  provisions  combined  with  an  incessant  bom- 
bardment made  the  spot  completely  untenable.  The  rem- 
nants of  the  garrison  could  resist  no  longer;  but  Cham- 
berlayne  was  determined  not  to  yield  himself  alive.  In 
his  company  was  a  very  lovely  girl  from  Caracas,  to 
whom  he  was  devotedly  attached.  The  girl,  whose  affec- 
tion was  as  ardent  as  his,  chose  to  die  with  him. 

Chamberlayne  placed  a  pistol  to  her  head,  another  to 
his  own,  and  it  was  over  the  dead  bodies  of  the  pair  that 
the  Spaniards  rushed  in  to  massacre  the  sur^dving  mem- 
bers of  the  garrison. 

A  more  cheery  topic  is  that  of  the  jovial  and  daring 
young  Irish  officer,  who,  moved  to  a  mad  freak,  was  re- 
sponsible for  a  premature  capitulation  of  Caracas.  Hav- 
ing privately  borrowed  three  general's  uniforms  (from 
which  it  will  be  obvious  that  generals  were  not  rare  in 
the  Northern  patriot  army!)  he  dressed  himself  in  one 
of  them,  and  a  couple  of  servants  in  the  other  two. 
Then,  slipping  away  from  Bolivar's  headquarters,  he 
rode  to  Caracas,  displayed  a  flag  of  truce,  and  demanded 
of  the  governor  the  surrender  of  the  city,  on  the  pretense 
that  Bolivar's  army  had  advanced  to  within  three  miles 
of  the  place.  The  governor,  deceived  by  this  bold  front, 
capitulated,  and  the  Irish  officer  rode  back  in  triumph 
to  Bolivar,  with  the  document  of  surrender,  sealed  and 
signed,  in  his  hand.  A  comrade  of  this  ingenious  offi- 
cer says  of  him:  *'Our  Lieutenant  acquired  by  this  ad- 
venture the  name  of  'The  towntaker.'  He  was  a  brave 
young  man,  though  thoughtless.  He  rose  rapidly  in  the 
army;  but,  not  long  after  I  left  the  country,  was  killed, 
at  the  recapture  of  Maracaibo  by  the  royalists." 

The  hands  of  the  British  were,  in  general,  so  free  from 
loot  during  this  campaign  that  the  spoil  which  these 
shared  with  their  South  American  comrades  at  the  taking 


182      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

of  the  cathedral  of  the  town  of  Barcelona  must  be  con- 
sidered as  the  fruit  of  a  rare  lapse.  The  chief  treasure 
was  concealed  in  a  secret  chamber  beneath  the  altar,  and 
the  story  of  its  discovery  suggests  the  pages  of  Edgar 
Allan  Poe  or  Robert  Louis  Stevenson:  ''On  tapping 
round  it,  we  judged  by  the  hollowness  of  the  sound,  that 
there  was  a  closet  behind  it ;  and  continuing  our  search, 
we  found  three  spring-bolts  rather  clumsily  attached  to 
the  frame,  upon  the  touching  of  which  the  altar-piece 
flew  open,  and  disclosed  a  spacious  room,  filled  with  boxes 
of  various  dimensions.  Colonel  Blossett,  who  thought 
that  this  apparent  concealment,  coupled  with  other  in- 
dications, implied  the  existence  of  a  hidden  treasure,  im- 
mediately jumped  into  the  room  with  such  violence  that 
myriads  of  spiders  and  an  enormous  cloud  of  dust  came 
tumbling  about  his  ears.  After  shaking  himself,  to  get 
clear  of  this  disagreeable  annoyance,  he  assiduously  com- 
menced operations.  ...  In  a  niche  we  also  found  one  of 
the  most  valuable  relics  of  the  place,  at  least  to  the 
monks.  This  was  the  body  of  a  man  of  gigantic  stature, 
curiously  preserved  in  a  case  with  a  glass  cover.  It  wore 
a  loose  dress  of  white  satin,  in  the  Roman  form,  and 
round  its  neck  was  a  golden  collar  of  great  weight,  set 
with  emeralds  and  pearls,  to  which  was  fastened  a  chain 
of  the  same  metal,  each  link  being  elegantly  chased.  On 
its  wrists  and  ankles  were  bracelets  similar  to  the  collar, 
to  each  of  which  the  chain  was  also  fixed;  and  a  crown 
adorned  its  head,  whereon  its  name  was  enameled  at  full 
length.  This  was  shown  by  the  priests  as  the  remains  of 
St.  Lawrence,  the  patron  saint  of  the  city,  to  whom  the 
cathedral  was  dedicated.  To  him  were  all  miracles  as- 
cribed, and  for  him,  and  in  his  name,  were  all  contribu- 
tions levied.*' 

It  appears  that  the  ladies  of  the  town  were,  justly 
enough,  not  a  little  incensed  at  the  spoliation  of  their 
patron  saint. 

"Here!"  exclaimed  one,  **they  have  stripped  poor  St. 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  INDEPENDENCE  183 

Lawrence,  and  everybody  knows  that  he  was  a  good  old 
soldier ! ' ' 

''Very  true,"  replied  an  officer,  *'but  you  know  that  all 
soldiers  are  liable  to  lose  their  baggage  in  time  of  war." 

Nevertheless,  since  it  was  the  British  who  were  re- 
sponsible for  the  loss  of  this  particular  baggage,  it  is  to 
be  feared  that  the  act  did  not  render  them  more  popular 
in  the  eyes  of  the  priests,  who  from  the  day  of  their 
first  landing  had  regarded  them  with  aversion,  and  who 
had  assiduously  spread  unfavorable  reports  concerning 
them.  They  even  went  the  length  of  instilling  into  their 
flock  theories  to  the  effect  that  the  British  were  canni- 
bals— cannibals,  moreover,  whom  nature  had  adorned 
with  a  tail.  It  was  on  this  account  that,  for  some  time 
after  their  landing,  the  officers  of  the  legion  noticed  so 
many  searching  glances  cast  toward  their  figures,  fol- 
lowed by  the  baffled  look  of  one  who  fails  to  see  with  his 
eyes  that  which  his  mind  had  confidently  predicted ! 

It  is  not  generally  realized  that  at  one  period  of  the 
War  of  Independence  there  were  no  less  than  two  thou- 
sand British  seamen  serving  in  Bolivar's  fleet  and  in  the 
river  gunboats.  These  men  were  frequently  utilized  in 
land  fighting,  and  made  up  a  most  efficient  force. 

Certainly  none  of  the  merit  of  such  services  as  they 
performed  was  to  be  ascribed  to  Admiral  Brion,  the  first 
commander  of  Bolivar's  navy.  Brion,  a  native  of 
Curagoa,  was  of  Dutch  origin,  and,  until  he  entered  the 
Venezuelan  service  at  the  age  of  forty,  he  had  had  no 
experience  whatever  of  naval  matters.  Indeed,  the  only 
reason  why  he  attained  at  one  leap  to  his  high  com- 
mand was  that  his  wealth  had  in  the  first  instance  en- 
abled him  to  provide  out  of  his  own  pocket  the  squadron 
he  commanded! 

Brion  seems  to  have  been  honestly  and  enthusiastically 
devoted  to  the  cause.  On  the  other  hand,  he  gave  only 
too  abundant  proofs  of  his  foolishness,  pig-headedness, 
and  utter  incompetence.    Brion,  in  fact,  was  a  crank 


184     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

whose  eccentricity  verged  at  times  on  madness.  What 
can  be  thought,  for  instance,  of  a  naval  commander  who, 
when  he  caught  sight  of  a  hostile  fleet  in  a  position  which 
would  have  made  its  defeat  easy,  contented  himself  with 
firing  a  salute  of  twenty-one  guns,  and  with  hoisting  a 
demijohn  of  wine  and  a  live  turkey  at  the  yardarms  of  his 
vessel,  and  then  sheered  off? 

The  uniform  which  Brion  chose  for  himself  was  not  of 
the  kind  to  impress  naval  spectators  with  the  technical 
and  sober  efficiency  of  its  wearer.  On  his  own  quarter- 
deck he  was  usually  attired  in  ^'an  English  hussar  jacket 
and  scarlet  pantaloons,  with  a  broad  stripe  of  gold  lace 
down  each  side,  a  field  marshal's  uniform  hat,  with  a 
very  large  Prussian  plume,  and  an  enormous  pair  of 
dragoon  boots,  with  heavy  gold  spurs  of  a  most  incon- 
venient length. ' ' 

Brion  invariably  displayed  a  deep  prejudice  against 
all  Europeans,  and  did  his  best  to  thwart  the  British  in 
the  Venezuelan  service.  His  command,  however,  was  not 
of  long  duration.  He  was  succeeded  by  Padilla,  a  native 
of  Rio  de  la  Hacha,  and  a  brave  and  practical  seaman. 
Among  those  of  the  British  who  distinguished  themselves 
in  this  Venezuelan  naval  service  were  Chitty,  Bingham, 
Noel,  Cobham,  and  Russel.  All  these  were  in  command 
of  warships  of  various  kinds,  but  I  have  named  them  thus 
curtly,  being  uncertain  as  to  what  precise  rank  they  held 
in  a  navy  that  was  of  necessity  of  a  somewhat  improvised 
kind. 

Bolivar's  relations  with  the  British  troops  in  general 
were  of  the  most  cordial  description  throughout.  The 
Liberator  was  outspoken  in  his  admiration  for  the  legion, 
and  at  a  banquet  would  frequently  drink  reverently  to 
the  memory  of  the  dead,  more  especially  to  that  of  Rooke, 
whom  he  had  especially  esteemed. 

Bolivar's  ardent  and  tropical  temperament  frequently 
led  him  into  performances  of  a  theatrical  nature  which 
to  the  colder  Northern  mind  might  easily  obscure  his  real 


%-A 


GENERAL    BOLIVAR 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  INDEPENDENCE  185 

generosity  and  frank  good  fellowship.  If  there  were 
times  when  Bolivar  loved  to  pose  before  his  troops  in  a 
glittering  uniform,  no  one  had  a  better  right.  Even  the 
fainting  emotion  which  he  sometimes  indulged  in  the 
face  of  rapturous  public  applause  was  a  perfectly  harm- 
less weakness.  That  he  was  an  excellent  comrade  in 
times  of  stress  has  been  proved  by  many  Englishmen  in 
his  service.  When  Colonel  Rooke,  for  instance,  was 
robbed  of  his  baggage  on  the  plains  of  the  Apure,  it  was 
Bolivar  who  gave  him  half  his  own  wardrobe,  scanty 
enough  though  it  was  on  the  march.  A  circumstance,  too, 
that  won  the  Liberator  the  respect  of  many  soldiers  was 
that  he  was  a  quite  unusually  good  shot,  and  a  fine  swim- 
mer. When  the  circumstances  warranted  such  peaceful 
exercises,  moreover,  he  was  noted  for  the  excellence  of 
his  dancing. 

Another  of  his  officers.  Colonel  Mackintosh,  was  em- 
phatic concerning  Bolivar's  "exertions  on  the  march: 
*'0n  the  expedition  to  New  Granada  in  1819,  we  had  a 
number  of  rapid  mountain  torrents  to  pass :  in  order  to 
cross  those  which  were  not  fordable,  we  dragged  along 
two  small  canoes,  fastened  to  the  tails  of  horses,  by  means 
of  which  we  were  sometimes  enabled  to  make  a  bridge; 
at  other  times  they  were  used  to  carry  over  the  troops, 
arms,  etc.,  whilst  those  soldiers  who  had  learnt  the  art 
of  swimming,  swam  through  the  water.  Upon  all  these 
occasions,  Bolivar  was  very  active,  himself  setting  the 
example  of  labor,  and  frequently  working  harder  than 
any  common  soldier.  On  passing  rapid  rivers  where 
there  were  fords,  he  was  constantly  to  be  seen  assisting 
the  men  over,  to  prevent  their  being  carried  away  by  the 
force  of  the  torrent ;  and  carrying  on  his  own  horse  am- 
munition, arms,  and  pouches." 

At  the  battle  of  Boyaca,  Bolivar  was  clad  in  a  some- 
what overpowering  full  dress  of  scarlet  and  gold.  But 
this  did  not  prevent  him,  his  trumpeter  by  his  side  con- 
tinually sounding  the  advance,  from  plunging  at  the  head 


186     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

of  a  single  squadron  of  cavalry  four  leagues  in  advance 
of  his  army,  by  which  means  he  secured  a  large  number 
of  prisoners  which  could  have  been  obtained  by  no  other 
means. 

It  may  be  remarked  that  this  famous  South  American 
leader,  for  whom  the  British  fought  with  genuine  en- 
thusiasm, was  extremely  temperate  in  his  habits,  smoking 
very  rarely,  and  never  indulging  in  spirits.  The  more 
lukewarm  among  his  admirers  have  asserted  that  this 
sobriety  of  his  was  in  a  sense  obligatory,  since  a  too  gen- 
erous allowance  of  wine  was  wont  to  throw  him  into  a 
state  of  excitation  from  which  it  took  him  many  days  to 
recover.  However  this  may  have  been,  Bolivar  had  no 
fear  of  London  bottled  porter,  of  which  he  frequently 
carried  with  him  a  stock  when  on  the  march. 

Mention  has  been  made  of  Mrs.  English,  who  accom- 
panied General  English  on  his  expedition  to  South 
America,  and  who,  after  her  husband's  death,  continued 
in  that  continent.  This  lady  appears  to  have  been  of  a 
most  resolute  and  estimable  character,  and  after  an  un- 
pleasant experience  or  two  at  the  hands  of  some  of  the 
less  reputable  of  the  native  leaders,  she  appears  to  have 
won  the  respect  of  all.  Her  house  subsequently  seems  to 
have  formed  one  of  the  centers  of  Anglo-South  American 
society  at  Bogota. 

It  was  in  the  course  of  a  ball  and  supper  at  Mrs.  Eng- 
lish's house  that  a  joyful  and  dramatic  episode  occurred. 
The  Vice-President  of  the  new  State  was  present,  and  in 
the  midst  of  the  entertainment  General  Paez's  English 
aide-de-camp,  Major  Withen,  arrived  in  hot  haste  with 
the  news  that  Puerto  Cabello  had  been  captured  and  that 
the  freedom  of  Colombia  had  finally  been  achieved.  The 
bearer  of  this  despatch — signed  by  Colonel  Woodberry — 
had  covered  a  distance  between  Puerto  Cabello  and  Bo- 
gota in  twenty  days,  a  feat  never  before  achieved ! 

It  is  possible  enough  that  the  British  legion  may  have 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  INDEPENDENCE  187 

been  accompanied  by  others  of  its  officers'  wives,  but,  if 
so,  I  have  come  across  no  record  of  them. 

When  the  War  of  Liberation  came  to  an  end  not  a  few 
of  these  British  warriors  turned  their  swords  into  local 
plowshares — or  their  more  modern  equivalent.  Colonel 
Manby,  for  instance,  proposed  to  occupy  himself  in  sub- 
stituting gas  for  the  few  feeble  paper  lanterns  which  glim- 
mered from  a  street  corner  or  two  of  Bogota  of  the  early 
nineteenth  century.  Colonel  Johnston,  in  association 
with  a  Mr.  Thompson,  obtained  a  grant  of  the  richest 
rock-salt  mines  in  the  North,  at  Zipaquira,  which  they  in- 
tended to  work  on  the  European  plan,  while  Colonel 
James  Hamilton  was  given  the  sole  right  of  navigating  the 
Orinoco  River  by  means  of  steam  vessels.  Other  officers, 
moreover,  obtained  grants  of  land. 


CHAPTER  X 

BRITISH    FIGHTERS   IN   THE   CAUSE   OF   SOUTH 
AMERICAN   INDEPENDENCE 

(II) 

Bernardo  O'Higgins — State  circumstances  affecting  his  birth — Relations 
between  the  great  viceroy  and  his  son — A  haphazard  early  existence — 
Meeting  with  Miranda  and  San  Martin — The  consequences  of  parental 
neglect — On  his  father's  death  Bernardo  O'Higgins  arrives  in  Chile — 
His  life  as  a  country  gentleman — On  the  outbreak  of  war  he  espouses 
the  patriot  caiise — The  battle  of  Rancagua — Admirable  qualities  of 
Bernardo  O'Higgins — Their  value  to  the  State — Captain  Mehegan's 
book — Liberal  methods  of  the  Dictator — He  maintains  his  dignity  to  the 
end — Juan  Mackenna — Early  history — His  arrival  in  South  America — 
Made  Governor  of  Osorno  by  the  Viceroy  O'Higgins — Subsequent  pro- 
motion— Mackenna  joins  the  patriots — Jose  Miguel  Carrera — A  stormy 
petrel — Animosity  between  Mackenna  and  Carrera — Problems  of  lead- 
ership— Carrera  banishes  Mackenna  across  the  Andes — He  fails  O'Hig- 
gins at  the  battle  of  Rancagua — Flight  of  the  South  Americans  into 
Argentina — Carrera's  intrigues  in  Mendoza  are  frustrated  by  Mackenna 
— Mackenna  is  killed  by  Carrera  in  a  duel — The  Carreras — Benjamin 
Vicufia  Mackenna — Assistance  rendered  by  the  British  community  of 
Mendoza — Lord  Cochrane — Some  characteristics  of  the  great  sailor — 
Stormy  career  of  this  marine  comet — At  the  request  of  Bernardo  O'Hig- 
gins he  takes  charge  of  the  Chilean  navy — His  exploits  in  the  Pacific 
Ocean — The  capture  of  the  Esmeralda  and  of  the  Corral  forts — Fric- 
tion between  Cochrane  and  San  Martin — Bernardo  O'Higgins  mediator 
— Cochrane's  family — A  battle  episode — An  incident  in  which  Lady 
Cochrane  figured — William  Miller — After  serving  in  the  British  army 
he  sails  to  South  America — Shortly  after  his  arrival  in  Buenos  Aires 
he  receives  a  commission  in  San  Martin's  army — His  experiences  in 
the  Pampa — Mendoza  society — Miller  joins  his  regiment  in  Chile — His 
brother  officers — ^A  heterogeneous  but  genial  group — After  distinguish- 
ing himself  in  his  first  action  he  is  given  command  of  a  company  of 
marines — The  frigate  Lautaro's  officers  and  crew — Captain  O'Brien — 
Death  of  this  gallant  saiior — Enthusiasm  of  the  Lautaro's  scratch  crew 
— Its  curious  composition — Fine  achievements  of  the  young  na\'7 — 
The  Chilean  proves  himself  an  admirable  sailor — Satisfactory  relations 
between  officers  and  men — Miller's  marines — Proofs  of  devotion  given 
by  this  body — Miller  visits  Santiago — Gaieties  of  the  capital — St.  An- 
drew's day — Lord  Cochrane  presides  in  Highland  costume — Entertain- 

188 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  INDEPENDENCE  189 

ments  provided  by  the  British  fleet — The  first  cricket  in  Chile — Social 
functions — Lady  Cochrane  and  Seuora  Blanco  as  hostesses — Charm  of 
the  Chilean  ladies  described  by  a  contemporary  admirer — The  Chilean 
fleet  sets  sail  from  Valparaiso — Admiral  Guise — Miller's  various  wounds 
— Some  fallen  British  officers — Colonel  Charles — Various  posts  held  by 
Miller — The  Montonero  cavalry — Motley  appearance  of  the  corps — Its 
value  as  a  fighting  force — A  dangerous  feu  de  joie — Warfare  in  the 
rainless  Peruvian  deserts — Elaborate  strategy  devised  by  Miller — In- 
genious methods  by  which  the  Spaniards  were  outwitted — Local  super- 
stitions— Amenities  between  Miller  and  the  Spanish  leaders — On  the 
conclusion  of  the  war  Miller  is  made  prefect  of  Potosi — His  departure 
from  South  America — Esteem  in  which  he  was  held — Miller  returns  to 
South  America  eight  years  later — His  vicissitudes  in  altered  circum- 
stances— His  death — Honors  accorded  to  his  body. 

IN  dealing  with  the  struggle  in  the  South  of  the  con- 
tinent we  are  confronted  at  the  outset  with  an 
anomaly.  Strictly  speaking,  Bernardo  O'Higgins, 
the  son  of  the  famous  Irish  Viceroy  of  Peru,  being  a 
Chilean  and  no  British  subject,  has  no  place  in  these 
pages.  But,  whatever  his  nationality,  it  is  impossible  to 
pass  without  remark  by  so  great  an  historical  figure  as 
that  of  Bernardo  O'Higgins. 

A  viceroy  of  Peru,  holding  so  many  of  the  privileges  of 
royalty,  was  subject  to  a  corresponding  number  of  the 
restrictions  of  his  high  state.  No  viceroy,  for  instance, 
was  permitted  to  marry  a  lady  who  resided  within  his 
viceregal  territories.  But  for  this  law,  it  is  probable 
enough  that  Bernardo  O'Higgins  would  have  been  born  in 
wedlock,  for  his  mother,  Isabel  Riquelme,  belonged  to  one 
of  the  aristocratic  families  of  Chile.  She  undoubtedly 
proved  an  admirable  mother,  and  a  deep  affection  existed 
between  that  lady,  her  son,  and  her  daughter  Rosa. 

It  was  owing  to  the  irregular  circumstances  of  his  fam- 
ily that  so  little  is  known  about  Bernardo  O'Higgins 's 
quite  early  days.  Even  the  date  of  his  birth  is  surpris- 
ingly vague,  and  it  is  generally  conceded  that  it  may  have 
occurred  at  any  period  between  the  years  1775  and  1780. 
The  biographies  of  very  few  eighteenth-century  men  of 
his  eminence  contain  so  shrouded  a  birthday  as  this ! 


190     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

The  Viceroy  Ambrose  O'Higgins  publicly  recognized 
Bernardo  as  his  son.  At  the  same  time  it  must  be  ad- 
mitted that  his  care  for  his  offspring  was  of  a  desultory 
species.  As  a  boy  of  fifteen  the  latter  was  sent  to  Spain, 
and  from  there  he  went  on  to  England,  remaining  some 
time  at  a  school  at  Richmond. 

At  this  very  early  stage  of  his  existence  he  was  ap- 
parently left  entirely  to  his  own  devices.  Usually,  his 
father's  agents  supplied  him  with  a  sufficient  amount  of 
money,  but  there  were  times  when  he  suffered  from  a 
temporary  neglect,  and  when  funds  ran  low.  After  four 
or  five  years  of  this  comparatively  haphazard  existence 
he  sailed  for  Spain. 

It  is  curious  to  reflect  that  it  was  this  very  free-lance 
life  imposed  by  the  merely  casual  attention  bestowed  on 
him  by  Don  Ambrosio  which  brought  Bernardo  O'Higgins 
into  contact,  in  England  and  Spain,  with  South  American 
patriots  such  as  Miranda  and  Salf  Martin.  In  fact,  had 
it  not  been  for  this  parental  neglect,  it  is  morally  certain 
that  he  would  never  have  formed  those  connections  nor 
drunk  in  those  progressive  ideas  which  eventually  caused 
him  to  play  so  great  a  part  in  the  subsequent  overthrow 
of  that  mighty  empire,  of  which,  at  the  time,  his  father 
was  the  greatest  administrator. 

After  experiencing  numerous  vicissitudes  and  occa- 
sional privations  in  Spain,  Bernardo  O'Higgins,  having 
learned  of  his  father's  death,  when  he  himself  was  twenty- 
four  years  of  age,  set  sail  for  Chile,  and  very  nearly 
ended  his  days  at  Cape  Horn,  where  the  vessel  in  which 
he  was  a  passenger  struck  a  rock,  and  lay  for  a  time  in 
the  greatest  peril.  Eventually  he  arrived  home  in  safety 
in  the  Chilean  winter  of  1802. 

He  now  found  himself  in  possession  of  hacienda  of  con- 
siderable importance  bequeathed  him  by  his  father,  and, 
entering  the  militia,  he  lived  for  a  time  the  life  of  a 
Chilean  country  gentleman.    During  this  period  it  ap- 


%rV 


w,  -*!■* 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  INDEPENDENCE  191 

pears  that  his  views  were  looked  on  with  suspicion  by 
the  Spanish  authorities. 

When  the  War  of  Independence  broke  out  Bernardo 
O'Higgins  definitely  ranged  himself  on  the  patriot  side. 
In  the  stress  of  the  early,  and  frequently  disastrous,  con- 
flicts he  had  ample  opportunity  to  prove  his  courage  as 
well  as  his  resource.  One  of  the  most  notable  instances 
of  this  occurred  at  the  battle  of  Rancagua,  where  his 
forces — deserted  by  his  treacherous  ally  Carrera — were 
hemmed  in  by  a  greatly  superior  Spanish  force.  An  in- 
furiated struggle  raged,  and  the  Spaniards  attacked  al- 
most without  cessation  for  thirty-six  hours.  In  the  heat 
of  the  bitter  struggle  each  side  hoisted  the  black  flag,  a 
somber  standard  that  waved  a  grim  message  to  the  fight- 
ers that  no  quarter  was  to  be  given  or  expected ! 

The  Chilean  magazine  had  exploded;  ammunition  had 
given  out,  and  the  houses  of  the  town  amid  which  they 
fought  were  blazing  fiercely.  Even  then  Bernardo 
0  'Higgins  did  not  despair.  He  hastily  caused  a  number 
of  horses,  mules,  and  cattle  to  be  collected.  Side  by  side 
with  a  gallant  comrade,  Ramon  Freire,  he  placed  himself 
at  the  head  of  a  remnant  of  scarcely  more  than  two  hun- 
dred of  his  men.  Then,  driving  the  livestock  furiously 
before  them  to  confuse  their  enemies,  the  survivors 
charged  out  of  the  burning  town,  and  cut  their  way 
through  the  ranks  of  the  Spaniards. 

On  this  occasion  O'Higgins  received  a  bullet  through 
the  leg,  the  first  of  the  wounds  he  was  destined  to  receive 
in  the  patriot  service. 

It  is  clear  that,  in  addition  to  his  qualities  of  courage 
and  statesmanship,  the  lovable  character  of  Bernardo 
O'Higgins  assisted  in  winning  for  him  the  great  influence 
he  possessed.  It  seems  frequently  to  have  been  his  lot 
to  play  the  part  of  a  mediator.  He  had  this  temperament 
of  his  to  thank,  early  in  the  campaign,  for  his  appoint- 
ment as  commander-in-chief  of  the  Chilean  forces — an 


192     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

appointment  which,  as  one  who  had  received  no  military 
education,  he  accepted  only  after  some  demur.  He  does 
not  seem  to  have  been  one  of  the  objects  even  of  the  many 
hatreds  of  Jose  Carrera,  while,  the  frequent  involuntary 
umpire  in  the  disputes  between  Cochrane  and  the  Argen- 
tine leader  San  Martin,  he  achieved  the  seemingly  im- 
possible in  retaining  the  affection  of  both. 

A  master  mariner,  Captain  John  J.  Mehegan,  has  quite 
recently  produced  a  book,  * '  0  'Higgins  of  Chile. ' '  In  ac- 
tual volume  it  is  a  small  literary  egg,  but  it  is  very  full 
of  yolk!  In  this  interesting  little  work  the  author  has 
followed  the  career  of  Bernardo  0 'Higgins  with  the  en- 
thusiastic closeness  of  a  genuine  admirer.  A  couple  of 
paragraphs  from  his  preface  will  bring  the  career  of 
Bernardo  0  'Higgins,  when  at  its  zenith,  very  near  to  our 
own  days: 

**Many  an  adventurous  seaman  from  the  shores  of  the 
Mersey  and  Thames  joined  'Barney's  Navy,'  and  helped 
to  break  the  Spanish  power  in  the  South  Pacific ;  and  the 
writer  in  his  early  days  met  a  few  of  these  '  sheer  hulks ' 
who,  under  the  cheering  influence  of  hot  grog,  would 
thaw  out,  unseal  their  usually  taciturn  organs  of  speech, 
and  recount  their  adventures  and  experiences  while  en- 
gaged in  the  service  of  the  '  Irish  Dago. '  ' ' 

As  dictator  of  the  new  State — the  era  of  presidents  had 
not  yet  been  arrived  at  in  South  America — Bernardo  re- 
vealed those  great  qualities  of  government  with  which 
history  has  made  the  world  sufficiently  familiar.  In  many 
respects  his  methods  resembled  those  of  his  father,  the 
viceroy.  The  liberal  mind  of  the  latter  had  frequently 
nonplussed  the  Spanish  authorities:  the  progressive 
measures  of  the  son  frequently  brought  him  into  collision 
with  the  more  conservative  elements  of  the  new  Chile — 
the  elements,  in  fact,  which  most  closely  resembled  those 
of  the  old  Chile. 

It  was  the  manner  in  which  his  progressive  policy  was 
opposed  by  the  conservative  section  that  led  to  Bernardo 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  INDEPENDENCE  193 

O'Higgins's  retirement  from  power.  This  momentous 
step  be  carried  out  of  his  own  initiative,  and  the  ceremony 
with  which  he  divested  himself  of  the  insignia  of  his  rank 
and  proclaimed  himself  a  private  citizen  was  characteris- 
tically simple  and  dignified.  Indeed,  the  sunset  of 
Bernardo  0  'Higgins  's  career  was  every  whit  as  impres- 
sive as  its  midday  hour.  More  remarkable  still,  his  hold 
upon  the  people's  affection  was  as  strong. 

Colonel  John  Mackenna,  who  played  a  very  prominent 
part  in  the  War  of  Liberation,  came  out  to  South  America 
under  quite  different  auspices  from  those  of  his  British 
comrades  in  arms.  This,  however,  was  merely  owing  to 
the  fact  that  he  arrived  in  that  continent  fifteen  years  or 
so  before  the  fateful  campaign  began. 

Mackenna,  who  was  born  in  1771  at  Clogher  in  the 
county  of  Tyrone,  began  his  military  career  in  Spain. 
Of  a  good  family,  he  was  received  as  a  cadet  in  the  Irish 
regiment  in  that  country,  and  served  with  some  distinc- 
tion in  Morocco  and  against  the  French  in  the  Peninsula. 

He  had  attained  to  the  rank  of  captain  when  it  occurred 
to  him  that  South  America  promised  greater  things. 
There,  for  instance,  was  looming  the  tremendous  figure 
of  a  countrjTiian  who  had  set  out  with  not  a  tithe  of 
Mackenna 's  advantages,  0 'Higgins,  the  Viceroy  of  Peru. 

To  the  dismay  of  his  parents  Mackenna  determined  on 
the  venture,  and,  at  the  end  of  1796,  having  been  recom- 
mended to  Don  Ambrosio  0 'Higgins,  he  set  sail  for 
Buenos  Aires.  From  that  port  he  pricked  along  west- 
wards through  the  hot  summer  dust  of  the  flat  Pampa, 
crossed  the  Andes,  and  sailed  northwards  from  the  port 
of  Valparaiso  to  Lima. 

0  'Higgins,  finding  that  Mackenna  was  a  man  very  much 
after  his  own  heart,  made  him  governor  of  the  town  of 
Osorno,  and  there,  among  the  beautiful  forests,  moun- 
tains, and  streams  of  Southern  Chile,  Mackenna  labored 
with  strenuous  success  at  the  problems  of  road-construc- 
tion and  of  the  repair  and  upkeep  of  the  fortifications 


194     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

erected  to  defend  the  district  against  the  attacks  of  the 
warlike  Araucanian  Indians.  He  was  afterwards  given 
charge  of  Valdivia,  and  so  satisfied  were  the  authorities 
with  his  services  that  he  was  promoted  to  the  rank  of 
colonel,  and  was  made  Governor  of  Valparaiso. 

When  the  Civil  War  broke  out  Mackenna  had  every 
material  inducement  to  continue  in  the  service  of  the 
royalists. 

But  his  convictions  lay  so  strongly  with  the  other  side 
that  his  material  interests  went  by  the  board.  He  em- 
braced the  patriot  cause,  became  a  comrade  of  Bernardo 
0  'Higgins,  and  together  with  him  shared  the  vicissitudes 
of  the  early  Chilean  campaign. 

Very  soon  Mackenna  found  himself  involved  in  the 
confusion  brought  upon  the  patriot  army  by  that  arch- 
conspirator  and  most  unreliable  of  stormy  petrels,  Jose 
Miguel  Carrera.  Carrera,  one  of  three  brothers  who 
afterwards  suffered  execution  in  Argentina,  though  he 
fought  as  a  leader  on  the  Chilean  side,  had  in  reality 
only  one  cause,  and  that  was  his  own.  On  more  than 
one  occasion  his  intrigues  obtained  for  him  the  temporary 
command  of  the  patriot  forces,  but  his  character  never 
permitted  him  to  retain  this  post  for  any  length  of  time. 
His  adventurous  disposition,  moreover,  was  not  of  the 
type  which  shows  to  the  best  advantages  on  the  field  of 
battle,  for  in  the  face  of  the  enemy  he  more  than  once 
failed  to  lend  to  his  comrades  at  a  critical  moment  aid 
which  would  have  averted  defeat  and  gained  a  victory. 

From  the  start  of  the  war  Mackenna  set  himself  with 
resolution  to  oppose  Carrera 's  most  unscrupulous  moves, 
with  the  result  that  a  bitter  animosity  sprang  up  between 
the  pair.  In  the  early  days  of  the  revolution,  however, 
when  Mackenna  was  adjutant  general  and  Carrera  was 
commander-in-chief,  these  sentiments  had  of  necessity  to 
be  suppressed. 

At  this  juncture  of  the  War  of  Liberation  undoubtedly 
Carrera  stands  for  the  evil  genius  of  Chile,  and  Mackenna 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  INDEPENDENCE  195 

and  Bernardo  O'Higgins  for  its  good,  though  baffled, 
angels.  The  latter  pair  fought  strenuously  side  by  side, 
struggling  hard  to  repair  on  the  battle-field  the  harvest 
of  errors  sown  by  the  incapacity  of  Carrera. 

Seeing  that  this  condition  of  affairs  could  have  no  other 
end  but  that  of  the  niin  of  the  patriot  cause,  Mackenna  in- 
tervened, and  his  remonstrances  with  the  Junta — the  au- 
thorities of  the  very  youthful  State  of  Chile — resulted  in 
O  'Higgins  being  named  commander-in-chief  of  the  forces 
in  the  place  of  Carrera.  The  latter  accepted  the  situa- 
tion, since  no  other  course  was  open  to  him  at  that  mo- 
ment, but  he  remained  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  armies, 
poised  like  a  hawk  to  pounce  upon  the  first  opportunity  of 
snatching  power  that  should  come  his  way. 

After  this  the  joint  efforts  of  O'Higgins  and  Mackenna 
stemmed  for  a  time  the  royalist  tide.  But  before  long 
the  plotting  of  Carrera  again  proved  successful.  Hav- 
ing obtained  the  control  of  the  State,  he  endeavored  to 
make  his  precarious  position  more  secure  by  banishing 
Mackenna  to  Argentina  across  the  Andes. 

With  the  destinies  of  Chile  in  the  irresponsible  hands 
of  Jose  Carrera  and  of  his  brothers  Juan  and  Luis,  a 
crisis  in  the  affairs  of  the  young  State  was  not  long  to  be 
delayed.  At  the  fierce  battle  of  Eancagua,  Jose  Carrera 
left  the  gallant  O'Higgins  in  the  lurch,  and  although  he, 
with  the  remnant  of  his  heroic  deserted  force,  succeeded 
in  cutting  a  bloody  way  through  the  encircling  Spaniards, 
the  result  was  a  complete  victory  for  the  Spanish  general 
and  a  triumph  for  the  royalist  arms. 

After  the  battle  of  Rancagua  the  patriot  cause  appeared 
entirely  lost.  The  capital  was  again  occupied  by  the  tri- 
umphant Spaniards,  while  the  remnant  of  the  Chilean 
force,  accompanied  by  a  number  of  brave  ladies,  struggled 
over  the  Andes  into  Argentina,  losing  many  of  their 
number  in  the  course  of  the  strenuous  journey — a  casualty 
list  which  would  have  been  increased  but  for  the  succor 
and  provisions  which  Mackenna  sent  to  the  stricken  fugi- 


196     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

tives  from  Mendoza,  the  town  of  his  exile  at  the  foot  of 
the  eastern  slopes  of  the  Andes. 

Jose  Carrera — who  had  not  delayed  his  flight  until  the 
end  of  the  battle  of  Rancagua — had  arrived  in  Mendoza 
with  the  rest  of  the  fugitives.  There  he  endeavored  to 
continue  his  intrigues ;  but  he  found  that  the  sins  of  his 
past  were  coming  out  into  the  daylight  to  roost!  The 
great  Argentine,  San  Martin — who  had  received  the  rest 
with  the  most  cordial  hospitality — looked  upon  him  coldly, 
and  there  was  his  enemy  Mackenna  on  the  spot — a  witness 
whose  word  was  honored,  and  whose  testimony  could  not 
be  doubted.  Incensed  that  his  plots  should  be  thus  baffled, 
Jose  Carrera  picked  an  open  quarrel  with  Mackenna, 
chose  Admiral  Brown  as  his  second,  and  in  the  duel  that 
followed  Mackenna  fell. 

Undoubtedly  this  was  one  of  the  worst  of  the  many 
pieces  of  mischief  which  Carrera  succeeded  in  doing  to 
the  patriot  cause ;  for  the  history  of  the  Carrerra  brothers 
would  seem  to  be  one  of  outrage  that  continually  mounted 
in  audacity,  and  that  was  only  checked  by  the  execution 
at  different  dates  of  all  three. 

But  Mackenna,  although  he  fell  in  this  way,  had  at  all 
events  bequeathed  his  race  to  the  Chilean  nation,  as  is 
proved  by  the  existence  of  Benjamin  Vicuiia  Mackenna, 
one  of  the  most  famous  of  Chilean  authors  and  statesmen, 
who  was  born  in  1831. 

Preparations,  moreover,  for  the  campaign  continued 
without  a  break  at  Mendoza  under  the  vigilant  supervi- 
sion of  General  San  Martin.  The  great  Argentine  his- 
torian. General  Bartolome  Mitre,  states  that  the  English 
were  the  first  of  the  youthful  foreign  communities  to 
volunteer  assistance.  According  to  this  authority,  they 
raised  a  corps  of  riflemen,  on  the  condition  that  the  offi- 
cers should  be  elected  by  themselves.  This  they  did,  be- 
cause, in  their  own  words  *' appreciative  of  hospitality 
and  the  rights  of  man,  they  could  not  view  with  indiffer- 
ence the  danger  which  threatened  the  country,  and  were 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  INDEPENDENCE  197 

prepared  to  take  up  arms,  and,  if  necessary  to  yield  up  the 
last  drop  of  their  blood  in  its  defense." 

In  the  part  played  by  the  British  in  the  War  of  In- 
dependence in  the  Pacific  one  of  the  most  notable  figures 
is  that  of  Lord  Cochrane.  Now  in  a  sense — and  in  one 
sense  only — this  book  resembles  heaven.  The  more  ma- 
terial fame  a  man  has  enjoyed  in  his  life,  the  less  notice 
he  can  receive  in  these  pages !  In  spite  of  objections  to 
the  celestial  claim,  the  procedure  is  inevitable,  if  a  mere 
repetition  of  popular  history  is  to  be  avoided. 

This  applies  to  Cochrane  more  than  to  any  other  Brit- 
ish fighter  in  the  patriot  cause.  So  much  has  already 
been  written  about  this  most  gallant  and  mercurial  noble- 
man that  he  must  appear  here  merely  in  a  few  passing 
glimpses — which  is  only  fitting  in  a  personality  of  his 
elusive  and  extraordinary  daring.  Indeed,  the  peculiarly 
Irish  genius  of  the  great  Scotsman,  which  I  have  drunk 
in  eagerly  from  the  period- of  boyhood's  literature,  some 
years  ago  led  me  into  an  error  that  was  due  to  absent- 
mindedness  rather  than  to  ignorance.  For  not  until  the 
Scottish  papers  came  down  upon  my  error  with  richly 
justified  severity  was  I  made  aware  that  I  had  written, 
in  a  cotton- wool-headed  moment  "the  Irishman,  Lord 
Cochrane!"  To  w^hat  extent  Dundonald  himself  would 
have  relished  this  tribute  to  his  resource  I  do  not  know. 

Much,  I  suppose,  would  have  depended  on  his  mood, 
the  normal  frame  of  which  left  him  in  a  condition  spoiling 
for  a  fight ! 

In  his  moments  of  action  Cochrane  was  a  magnificent 
comrade.  In  the  rush  of  a  boarding  party,  the  heat  of  a 
hand-to-hand  fight,  and  the  steady  irresistible  advance 
over  the  slippery  decks,  there  was  no  living  man  whom 
the  ordinary  sailor  would  rather  have  had  by  his  side. 
Had  he  reserved  this  mood  for  the  turmoil  of  actual  bat- 
tle it  would  have  been  well  for  him  and  his  friends.  It 
was  precisely  his  inability  to  shake  it  off  in  times  and 
places  that  should  have  been  devoted  to  peace  that  put 


198     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

many  people — including  himself — to  much  inconvenience 
in  various  parts  of  the  world. 

Before  Bernardo  O'Higgins  had  invited  him  to  come 
out  to  the  Pacific  in  order  to  found  the  Chilean  navy, 
Cochrane  had  already  achieved  sufiQcient  to  cause  his 
name  to  be  regarded  with  a  wholesome  dread  by  his 
political  enemies  at  home.  But  he  had  done  more  than 
that.  His  combative  methods  in  Parliament  had  imbued 
his  own  co-legislators  with  a  dread  that  was  almost 
equally  profound,  and,  when  he  had  once  been  removed 
from  the  chamber  by  the  force  of  many  arms,  there  were 
doubtless  a  number  of  the  more  timid  who  heaved  a  sigh 
of  relief  on  the  Westminster  bank  of  the  Thames. 

Bernardo  O'Higgins  had  made  no  mistake  in  his  man. 
Lord  Cochrane  arrived  in  Chile  in  November,  1818,  and, 
a  marine  comet,  was  followed  by  an  adventurous  tail  of 
British  and  North  American  seamen.  In  four  years  or  so 
he  had  completely  swept  away  the  Spanish  navy,  that 
had  never  even  dreamed  that  a  fleet  flying  any  other  flag 
but  its  own  could  ever  come  into  existence  in  the  Pacific 
Ocean.  The  great  admiral's  exploits  on  this  coast  are, 
of  course,  world  famous.  The  two  most  salient  of  these 
are  probably  the  daring  and  ingenious  cutting-out  of  the 
Spanish  forty-gun  frigate  Esmeralda  from  under  the  guns 
of  Callao  Castle,  and  the  storming  of  the  Coral  forts  in 
Southern  Chile,  one  of  the  most  astonishing  feats  ever 
accomplished  by  a  squadron's  landing  party. 

Beyond  this  were  dozens  of  other  performances  of  a 
kind  that  could  never  have  been  achieved  by  a  sailor  of 
less  determination  and  initiative  than  Cochrane.  All  this 
was  to  have  been  expected,  and  Cochrane  received  full 
honors  and  acknowledgments  from  the  Chilean  people,  for 
whom  he  entertained  a  cordial  affection. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  Coch- 
rane's  leisure  moments  were  devoted  with  too  much  en- 
thusiasm to  the  adjusting  of  grievances — real  or  imagin- 
ary— such  as  required,  if  the  former,  little  beyond  diplo- 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  INDEPENDENCE  199 

matic  handling  to  be  smoothed  out  of  existence.  With 
all  his  admirable  and  gallant  qualities,  too  much  leisure 
did  not  suit  one  who  has  been  called  ''a  kind  of  destroy- 
ing angel,  with  a  limited  income,  and  a  turn  for  politics ! ' ' 

It  was  lamentable,  for  instance,  that  Cochrane  should 
have  fallen  foul  of  San  Martin.  But,  in  any  case,  the 
policy  and  temperaments  of  the  two  great  men  w^ere 
diametrically  opposed.  San  Martin — ^whose  valor  was 
blended  with  a  shrewd  and  calculating  caution  of  a  Scot- 
tish type — was  more  than  once  content  to  hold  back  his 
arm  and  to  let  the  forces  of  nature  work  irresistibly  in 
his  favor.  Cochrane,  on  the  other  hand — with  a  fire  and 
impatience  that  was  essentially  Latin! — became  chafed 
into  a  frenzy  of  irritation  at  a  policy  of  impassivity  which 
was  entirely  foreign  to  his  nature.  Hence  a  mutual  dis- 
trust, and,  only  too  often,  a  bitter  correspondence. 
Hence,  too,  an  infinity  of  worries  to  the  wise  friend  of 
both,  Bernardo  O'Higgins,  whose  part  it  frequently  was 
to  pour  balm  on  the  troubled  spirits. 

When  Lord  Cochrane  sailed  out  to  Chile  it  had  been  his 
intention  to  remain  there  for  the  rest  of  his  life.  To  this 
end  he  had  brought  out  with  him  agricultural  implements, 
seeds,  and  other  objects.  He  also  brought  out  his  charm- 
ing wife  and  his  young  son. 

Of  the  innumerable,  and  well  known,  incidents  w^hich 
might  be  repeated  here  did  space  permit  is  the  one  which 
has  this  boy  Tom* — then  a  youngster  of  ten — for  a  hero, 
when,  his  face  covered  with  the  brains  of  a  marine  killed 
by  a  cannon  ball,  he  tranquilly  assured  his  father  in  the 
midst  of  a  naval  engagement,  *  *  Indeed,  Papa,  the  shot  did 
not  touch  me ;  indeed,  I  am  not  hurt. ' '  But  to  attempt  to 
dive  into  the  too  great  sea  of  such  anecdotes  would  be  to 
get  out  of  one's  depth  immediately. 

As  a  hostess  Lady  Cochrane 's  success  was  immediate 
and  great  in  a  land  famous  for  the  fascination  of  its 
women.  Lady  Cochrane 's  popularity,  moreover,  was  not 
confined  to  the  upper  classes.    Here  is  an  episode,  told 


200     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

by  John  Miller,  which  occurred  during  Colonel  (after- 
wards General)  Miller's  stay  at  Huacho: 

"On  the  day  after  his  arrival  there,  and  whilst  he  was 
inspecting  the  detachments  in  the  Plaza,  Lady  Cochrane 
galloped  on  to  the  parade  to  speak  to  him  (Miller).  The 
sudden  appearance  of  youth  and  beauty,  on  a  fiery  horse, 
managed  with  skill  and  elegance,  absolutely  electrified  the 
men,  who  had  never  before  seen  an  English  lady:  ^Que 
hermosa!'  'Que  graciosa!'  'Quelindaf  'Que  guapaf 
'Que  airosa!  es  un  angel  del  cielof  were  exclamations 
that  escaped  from  one  end  of  the  line  to  the  other.  The 
lieutenant-colonel,  not  displeased  at  this  involuntary  hom- 
age, paid  to  the  beauty  of  a  country-woman,  said  to  the 
men,  'This  is  our  Generala.'  Her  ladyship  turned  her 
sparkling  eyes  toward  the  line,  and  bowed  graciously. 
The  troops  could  no  longer  confine  their  expressions  of 
admiration  to  half-suppressed  interjections;  loud  vivas 
burst  from  officers  as  well  as  men.  Lady  Cochrane  smiled 
her  acknowledgments,  and  cantered  off  the  ground  with 
the  grace  of  a  fairy. ' ' 

In  such  delightful  company  as  that  of  Lady  Cochrane 
we  may  well  leave  her  gallant  husband  for  a  time. 

William  Miller,  who  was  bom  in  1795,  had  seen  a  con- 
siderable amount  of  service  with  the  British  army  in  the 
Peninsula  and  in  North  America,  and  had  traveled  Eu- 
rope rather  extensively  in  a  private  capacity,  before  he 
sailed  for  Buenos  Aires  in  1817  in  order  to  take  up  arms 
in  the  cause  of  South  American  freedom.  He  chose  the 
South  of  the  continent  in  preference  to  Colombia  for  the 
reason  that  the  former  as  yet  was  almost  unvisited  by  the 
foreign  soldiers  as  well  as  mere  adventurers  who  had 
flocked  in  great  numbers  to  the  latter  country. 

Once  landed  on  the  rich  alluvial  soil  of  Buenos  Aires,  he 
found  himself  in  the  midst  of  a  community  of  his  o\\ti 
compatriots  who  had  already  firmly  established  them- 
selves in  that  budding  city.  Although  strongly  tempted 
by  the  lucrative  commercial  vista  which  was  already  re- 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  INDEPENDENCE  201 

vealing  itself  in  that  spot,  he  determined  to  persist  in  his 
chosen  career  of  the  sword.  His  closest  friends  in 
Buenos  Aires  appear  to  have  been  people  of  the  name  of 
Mackinlay,  and  a  Mr.  Dickinson,  who  presented  him  to 
Pueyrredon,  the  supreme  director  of  the  new  republic. 

As  a  result  of  this  he  received  in  due  course  a  cap- 
tain's commission  in  the  army  of  the  Andes  w^hich,  com- 
manded by  the  famous  Argentine  general,  San  Martin, 
was  then  in  Chile.  Before  this,  however,  he  had  ridden 
for  long  distances  over  the  pampa,  and  had  obtained  con- 
siderable experiences  of  the  life  of  the  plains.  It  was 
there  that  he  learned  the  ways  of  the  Gaucho  children  of 
the  prairies,  and  watched  them  in  their  every-day  tasks 
when  they  galloped  to  ''round  up"  the  cattle,  or,  having 
lassoed  and  slain  one  of  the  herd,  would  roast  its  carcase 
above  the  wood  fire  that  blazed  amid  the  green  grasses 
and  scarlet  verbena  of  the  pampa,  and,  having  cut  away 
long  strips  of  the  cooked  flesh,  would  place  the  ends  in 
their  mouths,  and  would  slice  the  pieces  clear  from  the 
main  strip  by  slashes  of  their  long  knives. 

He  would  see  them,  too,  in  their  festal  lace  and  silver, 
thrumming  their  guitars  to  love  songs  or  chanted  epics, 
when  a  single  mocking  word  would  send  the  great  sword- 
knife  whipping  out  from  its  sheath,  and  the  poncho  would 
go  curling  rapidly  round  the  left  arm  of  each  antagonist 
as  a  shield.  Undoubtedly  he  learned  much  in  these  first 
weeks  of  his  in  South  America  which  w^as  of  great  use  to 
him  in  his  subsequent  campaigns.  He  learned  much,  too, 
from  his  hospitable  Argentine  hosts,  and  galloped  after 
deer  and  ostrich,  and  shot  duck,  partridge,  pigeon,  and 
quail  to  his  heart's  content. 

Occasionally,  of  course,  he  met  with  that  rough-and- 
ready  criticism  such  as  the  raw  Gringo  must  expect  at 
the  hands  of  the  hardened  rider  of  the  plains.  Thus,  on 
his  way  across  the  plains  to  the  Andes,  having  refused 
the  offer  of  a  cigarette,  he  had  to  submit  with  what  grace 
he  could  to  his  postilion's  audible  verdict  on  himself  as 


202     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

given  to  the  postilion  of  the  next  stage.  It  was  curt,  but 
eloquently  pitying,  '*He  knows  nothing — can't  even 
smoke !"  At  Mendoza,  that  pleasant  town  in  the  shadow 
of  the  great  Andes,  famous  for  its  poplars,  vineyards, 
and  peach  groves  that  abound  on  the  banks  of  its  irrigat- 
ing streams.  Miller  saw  much  of  the  local  society.  A 
genial  man  of  the  world,  the  Argentines  found  him  sim- 
patico,  and  took  him  without  reserve  into  their  hearts. 
Thus  he  was  enabled  to  take  part  in  the  evening  parties, 
the  Tertulias,  of  the  place,  and  to  admire  the  infinite  grace 
of  the  daylight  minuets,  walked  on  plain  earthen  floors 
by  the  men  of  Mendoza  and  the  ladies,  these  latter  fre- 
quently attired  in  a  riding  habit,  a  long  whip  in  their 
hand. 

Miller,  having  crossed  the  Andes  by  the  pass  of  Uspal- 
lata — until  quite  recent  years  a  feat  much  easier  to  de- 
scribe than  perform — joined  his  regiment,  the  Buenos 
Aires  artillery.  From  the  very  first  moment  he  appears 
to  have  got  on  well  with  his  fellow  officers — a  gallant,  but 
curiously  heterogeneous  set  of  men.  Miller  has  left  a 
record  of  some  of  these,  and  it  is  sufficiently  instructive. 
There  was  Francisco  Dias,  a  most  polished  ex-officer  of 
the  Spanish  navy,  who  spoke  English  fluently,  and  was 
familiar  with  French  literature.  There  was  Juan 
Apostol  Martinez,  a  very  cheerful  and  most  ridiculously 
eccentric  captain,  who  hated  Spaniards  and  priests  to 
such  a  degree  that  he  played  every  conceivable  prank  on 
these  whenever  the  opportunity  offered,  and  even  fought 
three  duels  with  Dias  on  this  account.  There  was  a 
Frenchman  who  had  been  educated  at  the  ecole  polytech- 
nique  at  Paris,  and  who  had  afterwards  been  page  to 
King  Jerome  Bonaparte ;  there  was  Beltran,  a  monk  who 
had  unfrocked  himself  to  fight  in  the  cause  of  South 
American  independence,  and  who  proved  himself  a  gal- 
lant officer;  and  there  was  the  adjutant,  Talmayancu, 
an  educated  and  lively  Araucanian  Indian,  who  was  fond 
of  playing  practical  jokes  on  the  sentries  at  night! 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  INDEPENDENCE  SOS 

Surely  these  suffice  to  prove  the  extraordinarily  mixed 
composition  of  the  corps!  As  to  the  others,  let  Miller's 
testimony  be  given  in  his  own  words :  ' '  There  were  some 
very  fine  young  men  amongst  the  other  officers  of  the 
corps,  and  all  were  extremely  obliging.  Most  of  them 
played  on  the  guitar,  or  sang,  and  good  fellowship  reigned 
throughout  the  camp." 

Having  once  become  thoroughly  at  home  among  these 
new  comrades  of  his.  Miller,  having  obtained  leave,  rode 
down  to  the  port  of  Valparaiso,  where  he  was  delighted 
to  see  the  white  ensign  floating  over  the  waters  of  the 
Pacific.  Here  he  was  most  cordially  received  by  Com- 
modore Bowles  on  board  H.M.S.  Amphion.  Thus  we  find 
him  established  on  the  Pacific  slope  where  he  was  des- 
tined to  win  fame  and  honor.  It  is  impossible,  of  course, 
to  give  more  than  the  merest  outline  of  his  career  here. 

Of  its  more  salient  features  it  may  be  said  that  Miller 
was  fortunate  enough  to  distinguish  himself  in  the  first 
important  encounter  with  the  royalist  forces,  and  in  this 
action,  heroically  assisted  by  Ensign  Moreno,  he  saved 
two  of  the  guns  of  the  Buenos  Aires  artillery.  Shortly 
after  this  he  was  detached  with  a  company  of  infantry  to 
act  as  marines  on  board  the  newly  purchased  old  East- 
Indiaman  of  800  tons,  the  Wyndham,  now  known  as  the 
Lautaro  frigate  in  the  Chilean  service. 

The  Lautaro  may  serve  as  a  typical  specimen  of  the 
material  out  of  which  the  young  Chilean  navy  was  being 
forged  at  that  time.  Here,  then,  is  the  ship's  company 
of  the  frigate  Lautaro  of  the  young  Chilean  navy.  Her 
officers  were  for  the  most  part  British.  Her  commander 
was  Captain  O'Brien,  formerly  a  lieutenant  in  the  British 
navy,  in  which  service  he  had  already  distinguished  him- 
self in  the  action  which  ended  in  the  capture  of  the 
United  States  frigate  Essex. 

O'Brien  was  one  of  the  most  gallant  officers  who  ever 
trod  a  warship,  to  say  nothing  of  the  deck  of  an  old  East- 
Indiaman   converted   into   a   frigate!     He   died   in   the 


ft04     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

Lautaro's  action  with  the  Spanish  frigate  Esmeralda, 
I  when,  having  leaped  on  board  the  enemy's  ship  at  the 
aead  of  the  willing  stream  of  his  men,  the  two  vessels 
swung  apart,  and  O'Brien,  fighting  to  the  last,  was  un- 
avoidably left  to  face  the  Esmeralda's  men  with  no  more 
than  thirty  devoted  followers. 

All  this  was  only  ten  hours  after  her  capstan  had  been 
manned  for  the  first  time  in  the  Chilean  service  by  the 
Lautaro's  new  and  scratch  crew!  And  this  crew  in 
some  ways  was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  that  ever 
manned  a  warship.  The  expert  division  was  represented 
by  a  hundred  foreign  seamen.  Beyond  these  were  one 
hundred  and  fifty  Chileans,  many  of  whom  had  never 
before  boarded  a  sea-going  vessel,  but  whose  enthusiasm 
had  been  so  keen  that  many  of  them  swam  to  the  ship  from 
the  shore  in  order  to  make  certain  of  being  included  in  the 
crew! 

Such  was  the  Lautaro  and  her  crew,  and  it  was  this 
latter  type  of  sailor  that,  under  Cochrane  and  his  sub- 
ordinate officers,  speedily  piled  up  a  record  of  deeds  such 
as  any  of  the  old  maritime  nations  of  the  world  would 
have  been  proud  to  claim  for  their  own. 

When,  whether  by  capture  or  purchase,  the  Chilean 
fleet  increased  to  more  formidable  proportions,  it  was 
still  officered  in  the  main  by  Englishmen,  although  a 
considerable  sprinkling  of  North  Americans  and  other 
nationalities  now  assisted,  and  Captain  Dias,  Miller's 
former  comrade  in  the  Buenos  Aires  artillery,  being 
clearly  an  amphibious  person,  is  once  again  seen  on  the 
waters  in  command  of  the  little  twenty-gun  ship 
Chacahuco. 

Efficiency  soon  began  to  oil  the  springs  of  the  fleet,  and 
the  Chileans,  gaining  experience,  showed  themselves  even 
finer  sailors  than  their  first  commanders  had  dared  to 
hope.  Officers  and  men — though  they  frequently  failed 
to  understand  each  other's  lay  or  nautical  speech — ^began 
to  swear  by  each  other's  merits.     Their  ships  became 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  INDEPENDENCE  205 

those  fortunate  things  that  are  known  in  the  British 
navy  as  *' happy  ships."  When  at  the  top  of  their  busi- 
ness, the  crews  aimed  their  guns  and  boarded  with  ar- 
dor ;  when  off  duty,  the  officers  would  dance  on  the  quar- 
ter deck,  the  men  in  the  waist  and  on  the  forecastle. 

Miller  saw  to  it  that  his  marines  kept  in  the  forefront 
of  this  progress  of  efficiency,  and  they  repaid  his  efforts 
to  the  full.  On  one  occasion  he  was  sent  ashore  with  a 
flag  of  truce  which  the  Spaniards  violated,  and  had  it  not 
been  for  the  intervention  of  some  honorable  royalist 
officers,  and  for  the  angry  threats  of  retaliation  hurled 
against  the  Spanish  commander  by  his  comrades  afloat, 
it  is  probable  that  his  life  would  have  been  sacrificed 
to  the  vindictiveness  of  the  Spanish  general  Sanchez. 
When  he  eventually  returned  in  safety  to  his  own  vessel, 
Miller  found  that  his  marines  had  gone  aft  in  a  body,  and 
had  begged  the  commodore  to  allow  them  to  land  and 
to  rescue  their  officer,  an  attempt  which  must  have  meant 
certain  death  to  them! 

After  much  successful  cruising  Commodore  Blanco,  ac- 
companied by  Miller,  set  out  for  the  Chilean  capital  of 
Santiago,  and  met  with  a  regular  triumphal  reception  as 
they  approached  the  city.  Incidentally  in  the  course  of 
this  journey  Miller  reveals  that  even  among  the  very 
gallant  and  warm-hearted  Chileans  there  were  pressed 
men.  ''The  approach,"  he  relates,  "was  rendered  inex- 
pressibly delightful  by  the  cheering  welcome.  .  .  .  Even  a 
party  of  recruits,  tied  hand  to  hand,  halted  and  uttered 
their  vivas  as  heartily  as  did  their  escort. ' ' 

After  this  Miller  was  plunged  head  over  ears  into  the 
gaieties  of  Santiago,  even  then  a  town  of  arch-hospitality, 
at  which  delightful  place  even  then,  as  Miller  remarks, 
Chileans  and  foreigners  associated  together  perhaps 
more  than  in  any  other  great  town  of  South  America. 

At  the  end  of  November,  1818,  Lord  Cochrane  arrived 
at  Valparaiso  to  take  over  the  supreme  command  of  the 
Chilean  navy.     This  was  followed  by  a  season  of  that 


206     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

festivity  which  is  so  dear  to  the  Chilean  heart,  and  balls 
and  entertainments  of  all  kinds  abounded.  As  a  return 
for  the  numerous  affairs  of  the  kind  given  by  the 
Chileans,  Lord  Cochrane  in  the  full  costume  of  a  High- 
land chief  presided  at  an  elaborate  banquet  held  on  St. 
Andrew's  day.  Miller's  brother  renders  a  diplomatic 
account  of  the  convivial  revelry  on  that  occasion : 

*' Extraordinary  good  cheer  was  followed  by  toasts 
drank  with  uncommon  enthusiasm  in  extraordinary  good 
wine.  No  one  escaped  its  enlivening  influence.  St.  An- 
drew was  voted  the  patron  saint  of  champagne,  and  many 
curious  adventures  of  that  night  have  furnished  the  sub- 
ject of  some  still  remembered  anecdotes." 

Now,  were  vulgar  slang  permitted  in  a  work  of  this 
nature,  surely  the  verdict  on  this  wise  and  guarded  ac- 
count would  be  "  'Nuff  said!"  It  breathes  out  a  remin- 
iscent exhilaration  which  in  itself  is  most  graphic.  No 
doubt  these  good  fellows  of  tried  gallantry  let  them- 
selves go  to  their  hearts'  content,  and,  each  being  pro- 
foundly satisfied  with  the  Veritas  (or  veritate  for  the 
classic-minded)  in  vino  that  he  found  in  the  other,  the 
budding  friendship  between  the  Chileans  and  British 
must  have  attained  its  intimate  majority  then  and  there. 
This  undoubtedly  was  one  of  the  first  of  those  innum- 
erable Chileno  gatherings  upon  which  the  Andes  frowned 
on  from  above,  and  the  blue  Pacific  smiled  at  from  be- 
low! 

The  officers  of  the  two  British  warships  Andromache 
and  Blossom,  just  then  in  Valparaiso  Bay,  lost  no  time 
in  associating  themselves  with  these  festivities.  The 
first  regular  race  course  on  the  Pacific  coast  was  im- 
provised ;  a  level  space  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  town 
was  cleared  of  its  cactus  and  scrub,  and  then  followed 
cricket  matches,  and  the  bang  of  the  leather  ball  against 
those  queerly  shaped  old  bats  of  the  early  nineteenth 
century. 

But  let  the  contemporary  chronicler  from  whose  pages 


:?%ji. 


j^K*      ■¥. 


4r  » '■<>o> 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  INDEPENDENCE  207 

I  have  already  quoted  sum  up  the  doings  at  Valparaiso  at 
this  period: 

''The  intercourse  between  Valparaiso  and  the  capital 
was  incessant.  A  grand  ball  at  one  place  drew  numbers 
of  the  beau  monde  from  the  other.  Tertulias,  or  routs, 
and  dances  were  given  nearly  every  evening  at  Val- 
paraiso. The  two  presiding  belles  were  Lady  Cochrane 
and  Mrs.  Commodore  Blanco,  both  young,  fascinating, 
and  highly  gifted.  The  first  was  a  flattering  specimen  of 
the  beauty  of  England,  and  the  second  was  perhaps  the 
most  beautiful  and  engaging  woman  of  Chile.  ...  In  the 
bright  galaxy  of  Chilena  enchantresses  are  to  be  recorded 
the  names  of  Dias-Cajigas,  Cotapos,  Vicuna,  Perez, 
Caldera,  Gana,  Barra,  with  a  hundred  more,  all  calculated 
to  produce  ineffaceable  impressions.  In  the  midst  of 
these  gay  scenes  the  outfit  of  the  squadron  was  com- 
pleted." 

On  the  14th  of  January,  1819,  all  was  ready,  and  the 
following  ships  put  out  to  sea:  O'Higgins,  50  guns, 
Vice-Admiral  Lord  Cochrane,  Captain  Forster ;  San  Mar- 
tin^ 56  guns.  Captain  Wilkinson;  Lautaro,  48  guns.  Cap- 
tain Guise ;  CJiacabuco,  20  guns.  Captain  Carter.  Miller, 
it  may  be  said,  was  appointed  to  the  command  of  all  the 
troops  of  the  squadron  serving  as  marines. 

The  Chilean  navy  was  now  fairly  launched  upon  the 
waters,  and  the  deeds  it  performed  are  too  well  known 
to  need  recapitulation  here.  When  it  had  done  its  work 
no  Spanish  flag  flew,  afloat  or  ashore,  along  the  Spanish 
coast. 

The  casualties  among  the  British  officers  on  such  stren- 
uous service,  as  may  be  imagined,  were  not  slight.  From 
Lord  Cochrane  himself  down  to  the  junior  ranks  scarcely 
one  emerged  from  the  campaign  unwounded.  Miller's 
escapes  from  death  were  especially  numerous,  one  of  the 
narrowest  of  these  being  when  he  was  injured  by  a 
chemical  explosion  which  blew  the  nails  from  his  finger- 
tips and  his  face  out  of  all  recognition  for  the  time  being- 


208     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

At  Pisco  he  was  wounded  in  four  places,  one  ball  perma- 
nently disabling  his  left  hand,  and  another  of  the  four 
entering  his  chest,  fracturing  a  rib,  and  passing  out  at 
the  back.  On  this  occasion  his  life  was  again  despaired 
of;  yet  he  contrived  to  win  his  way  back  to  health,  to 
suffer  a  grazed  head  at  Corral,  and  a  terrible  dose  of 
mutilation  at  Chiloe,  where  a  grapeshot  passed  through 
his  left  thigh;  a  four-pounder  crushed  his  right  instep, 
and  a  bullet  inflicted  a  flesh  wound.  Three  of  his  trusty 
marines  bore  him  to  safety  under  a  murderous  fire,  two 
of  them  persisting  in  this  duty  even  after  they  them- 
selves were  wounded,  and  once  again  Miller  recovered ! 

Then,  too,  the  land  campaign  was  responsible  for  the 
loss  of  such  fine  fellows  as  Lieutenant  Gerard,  a  gallant 
young  Scotsman  who  had  formerly  belonged  to  the  Brit- 
ish rifle  corps ;  another  Scotsman  of  the  name  of  Welsh, 
a  deeply  esteemed  young  surgeon  whose  loss  was  de- 
plored throughout  every  branch  of  the  Chilean  forces. 

But  undoubtedly  one  of  the  most  lamented  of  all  these 
losses  was  that  of  Colonel  Charles,  a  peculiarly  gallant 
and  chivalrous  soldier  who,  having  passed  through  the 
Royal  Academy  at  Woolwich,  served  in  the  artillery  in 
the  Peninsula,  and  having  been  made  aide-de-camp  to 
Sir  Robert  Wilson,  traveled  and  campaigned  in  Turkey, 
Germany,  and  Italy.  On  his  arrival  in  South  America, 
therefore,  Charles  was  already  a  person  of  some  distinc- 
tion, and  had  received  orders  and  decorations  from  Rus- 
sia, Austria,  and  Prussia.  His  quite  unusual  intrepidity 
and  charm  made  a  deep  impression  on  the  west  coast  of 
South  America,  and,  had  he  not  fallen  at  Pisco — almost 
at  the  same  moment  when  his  close  friend  Miller  was 
so  severely  wounded — it  is  probable  that  his  name  would 
still  be  ringing  to  and  fro  between  the  foot  hills  of  the 
Andes. 

To  return  to  General  Miller,  it  may  be  said  that  none 
of  his  British  comrades  on  land  enjoyed  such  high  com- 
mand and  varied  experiences  of  South  American  war- 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  INDEPENDENCE  209 

fare  as  he.  Certainly  he  had  no  reason  to  complain  of 
any  monotony  in  his  career.  His  initial  appointment  to 
the  Buenos  Aires  artillery  was  followed,  as  we  have  seen, 
by  a  transference  to  the  marines.  He  was  subsequently 
promoted  by  General  San  Martin  to  the  lieutenant- 
colonelcy  of  a  black  corps,  the  eighth  battalion  of  Buenos 
Aires.  After  this,  having  commanded  a  battalion  of  the 
Peruvian  legion,  he  served  as  chief  of  the  staif  of  the 
Peruvian  army,  the  temporary  command  of  which  de- 
volved on  him,  and  at  this  period  he  received  from  Boli- 
var a  letter  of  appreciation  and  of  personal  thanks  for 
his  services.  After  two  or  three  temporary  cavalry 
commands  Miller  was  appointed  to  the  post  of  command- 
ant-general of  the  Peruvian  cavalry,  and  we  may  pause 
for  a  few  lines  at  this  appointment,  since  it  was  one  of 
the  most  notable  he  held. 

The  Montoneros,  or  irregular  cavalry  of  Peru,  knowing 
either  Miller's  personality  or  repute,  welcomed  him  with 
enthusiasm.  Miller,  too,  was  already  familiar  with  the 
military  virtues,  as  well  as  with  the  outward  appear- 
ance, of  his  new  troops. 

The  most  ardent  admirer  of  the  Montonero  cavalry 
might  have  suffered  some  qualms  concerning  their  pres- 
tige as  they  paraded  before  Miller.  A  pipe-clay  mar- 
tinet would  have  sunk  into  an  apoplectic  trance  on  the 
spot.  Scarcely  any  two  out  of  the  whole  division  of 
Montoneros  were  alike  in  uniform,  accoutrements,  or 
arms.  This  strong  individuality  of  the  riders  seems  to 
have  affected  even  the  mounts,  for  while  some  rode  horses 
others  sat  astride  mules! 

As  to  the  men,  their  athletic  bodies  were  garbed  in 
every  conceivable  blend  of  patriot  uniform,  captured 
Spanish  kit,  and  countryside  costume;  though  not  one 
of  them  was  lacking  his  lasso  or  his  poncho.  Their  arms 
were  almost  as  varied  as  their  uniforms,  comprising  al- 
most every  known  weapon,  from  lances,  swords,  pistols, 
muskets,  and  bayonets  to  daggers  and  long  knives. 


210     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

But  Miller  knew  that  these  rough-and-ready  cavalry- 
men could  fight — and  their  enthusiasm  was  heightened  by 
the  fact  that  they  were  aware  of  his  knowledge !  As  the 
commandant-general  rode  down  the  motley  lines,  the 
Montoneros  let  loose  a  spontaneous  feu  de  joie  as  ir- 
regular as  themselves.  No  doubt  as  he  heard  the  bullets 
whistling  past  him  Miller  appreciated  the  compliment 
acutely !  The  reckless  fellows  had  no  concern  with  blank 
cartridge !  But  they  succeeded  in  not  hitting  their  popu- 
lar general. 

It  was  in  operations  among  the  sandy  wastes  of  the 
Peruvian  coastal  desert  that  Miller  was  enabled  to  give 
his  strategic  genius  full  play.  Frequently  his  force  was 
obliged  to  penetrate  into  completely  rainless  deserts 
similar  to  that  of  Huantajaya,  which  used  to  be  locally 
famous  on  account  of  the  behavior  of  one  of  its  young 
women  when  on  a  visit  to  Tarapaca,  where  a  few  quaint 
streams  are  wont  to  trickle.  If  to  begin  a  story  with  the 
words:  ''there  was  a  young  lady  of  Huantajaya"— prom- 
ises (falsely)  a  continuation  in  Limerick  verse,  it  cannot 
be  helped.  The  young  lady  did  exist,  and  on  seeing  for 
the  first  time  one  of  these  streams,  she  was  horrified  at 
the  sight  of  so  much  precious  water  running  to  waste. 
' '  Save  it ! "  she  cried,  flinging  herself  down,  and  endeavor- 
ing to  scoop  some  of  the  fluid  up  in  her  hands.  "You 
heretics  of  Tarapaquenos,  save  it!" 

The  methods  by  which  Miller  continually  deceived  the 
Spanish  leaders  as  to  the  actual  strength  of  his  force  was 
frequently  entertaining  in  the  extreme — to  all  but  the 
commanders  of  the  opposing  army.  There  would  be 
numerous  jugglings  with  uniforms.  Trumpeters  would 
sound  at  night  in  desolate  valleys  where  no  others  but 
themselves  rode,  and  dozens  of  camp-fires  would  blaze, 
warming  nothing  but  the  dry  Peruvian  air!  Spanish 
prisoners  just  previous  to  their  release  would  witness  the 
cleverly  staged  march  past  of  a  great  patriot  army,  in 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  INDEPENDENCE  211 

which  each  man  did  duty  many  times  over.  At  night, 
too,  these  prisoners  would  hear  the  reiterated  commands 
to  prepare  fresh  billets  for  expected  troops,  and  each 
such  order  was  followed  by  the  noise  of  an  arriving 
squadron.  This  was  sometimes  carried  to  such  a  pitch 
that  the  patriot  rank  and  file  themselves  were  sometimes 
completely  deceived  as  to  the  actual  strength  of  the  army 
with  which  they  were  marching!  Miller's  brother  gives 
some  interesting  details  concerning  the  use  made  of  in- 
tercepted ofiGcial  royalist  letters: 

''The  originals  were  kept,  and  others  counterfeited, 
and  sent  in  their  stead.  Other  letters  were  written  in 
cipher,  or  in  a  mysterious  style,  for  the  express  purpose 
of  being  intercepted,  and  which  made  Manzanedo  doubt 
the  fidelity  of  his  own  officers.  Cordova  and  Rodriguez, 
two  distinguished  and  influential  priests,  were  particu- 
larly useful  in  the  execution  of  these  stratagems.  Cor- 
dova willingly  acted  as  secretary.  .  .  .  He  was  of  a 
jovial  turn ;  and  often,  when  half  the  night  had  been  con- 
sumed in  despatching  letters  in  various  directions,  he 
and  Miller  would  pass  the  remainder  in  hearty  laughs 
at  the  strangeness  of  their  productions,  and  in  speculat- 
ing with  great  glee  upon  the  probable  results." 

The  result  of  all  this  was  the  complete  outwitting  of 
the  Spaniards,  whom  Miller  would  frequently  keep  in 
check  by  a  mere  handful  of  men  posing  as  a  formidable 
army!  No  doubt,  too,  Miller's  impish  genius  made  the 
most  of  those  mysterious,  rainless,  and  arid  hills  and 
valleys  where,  some  said,  lights  would  flicker  at  night, 
and  the  voices  of  the  slaughtered  ancient  Peruvians  would 
sound  again  across  the  still  air! 

Miller,  moreover,  succeeded  in  winning  the  esteem  of 
the  Spaniards,  who  respected  his  chivalry,  and  when  the 
occasion  arose,  courtesies  were  frequently  exchanged  be- 
tween him  and  the  royalist  leaders.  So  liberally  were 
these  amenities  of  warfare  cultivated  that  the  Spanish 


212     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

general  Valdez,  when  be  learned  once  that  Miller  had  no 
cigars,  sent  the  patriot  commander  a  box  of  his  own 
Havana  s ! 

When  the  War  of  Liberation  had  been  victoriously  con- 
cluded the  South  Americans  made  it  abundantly  clear 
that  they  did  not  look  upon  General  Miller  in  the  light  of 
a  mere  soldier  of  fortune.  He  was  named  prefect  of  the 
province  of  Potosi,  and  was  thus  given  authority  over  a 
population  of  some  three  hundred  thousand  people.  The 
scope  of  this  civil  and  military  authority,  moreover,  was 
extraordinarily  wide.  Miller's  office  included  the  posts 
of  superintendent  of  the  mint,  director  of  the  bank,  vice- 
patron  of  the  Church  (who  had  the  power  of  displacing 
clergy  from  their  office,  and  without  whose  ratification  no 
clerical  appointment  was  valid)  and  involved  the  filling 
of  over  a  hundred  civil  appointments ! 

Miller  held  this  post  with  all  success  until  reasons  of 
health  made  it  urgently  necessary  for  him  to  return  to 
England.  His  parting  from  his  colleagues,  both  civil 
and  military,  was  of  the  most  affectionate  description, 
and  it  was  with  a  deep  sense  of  mutual  esteem  that  Mil- 
ler and  the  inhabitants  of  Potosi  took  leave  of  each 
other.  After  this  Miller,  bearing  high  and  cordial  testi- 
monials from  General  Bolivar,  rode  down  from  the  moun- 
tains to  the  plains  of  Buenos  Aires  on  his  way  to  Europe. 
His  material  rewards,  although  not  munificent,  were  not 
to  be  despised.  He  had  received  five  thousand  pounds 
from  the  Peruvian  Government,  and  a  grant  of  land  from 
Argentina. 

It  is  said  that  an  English  merchant,  traveling  in  the  in- 
terior of  Peru  at  that  period,  made  a  point  of  announcing 
himself  as  a  countryman  of  Miller,  because  the  usual  an- 
swer was,  ''A  countrjTuan  of  Miller's  must  have  the  best 
house  and  the  best  fare  that  an  Indian  village  can  af- 
ford." 

It  is  in  one  sense  regrettable  that  Miller's  public  career 
cannot  be  closed  with  this  triumphal  homecoming  of  his 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  INDEPENDENCE  213 

to  England.  But  after  eight  years  he  returned  to  Peru 
again,  and  this  time  found  the  new  State  in  the  throes 
of  its  internal  dissensions.  Becoming  involved  in  these, 
he  was  banished  from  the  country  in  1839.  This  af- 
forded a  tragic  contrast  to  the  manner  in  which  his  first 
departure  had  been  effected.  Decidedly  it  was  not  the 
fate  anticipated  by  one  of  whom  General  Bolivar  had 
said  that,  "South  America  will  always  claim  as  one  of 
her  most  glorious  sons. ' '  But  Bolivar's  own  lot  was  very 
little  brighter  than  Miller's.  The  changes  in  Peru  had 
been  rapid! 

Miller  subsequently  obtained  an  appointment  as  British 
consul-general  and  commissioner  in  the  Pacific,  and,  again 
returning  to  Peru,  he  endeavored,  without  success,  to 
make  good  his  financial  claims  against  the  Peruvian 
Government. 

In  1861  he  felt  that  his  end  was  near,  and,  having  been 
taken  on  board  H.M.S.  Frigate  Naiad,  he  died,  as  he  had 
earnestly  wished,  under  the  British  flag.  Notwithstand- 
ing his  difficulties  with  the  Government,  his  popularity 
with  the  Peruvians  seems  to  have  been  practically  unim- 
paired, for  during  his  illness  he  was  publicly  prayed  for 
— a  very  unusual  circumstance  in  the  case  of  a  non-Roman 
Catholic — and,  buried  in  the  British  cemetery  at  Lima, 
he  was  accorded  a  public  funeral.  He  appears,  indeed, 
to  have  been  genuinely  mourned. 

No  people  have  proved  themselves  more  generous  than 
the  South  Americans  in  the  erection  of  monuments  to 
their  heroes.  O'Higgins,  Cochrane,  Mackenna,  Brown, 
and  the  rest  have  been  very  freely  honored  in  this  way. 
But  Miller  lacks  his  adequate  measure  of  commemorative 
stone — probably  for  the  reason  that  his  services  were 
spread  over  several  frontiers  and  that  no  country  can 
take  undivided  charge  of  his  fame. 


CHAPTER  XI 

BRITISH  FIGHTERS  IN  THE  CAUSE  OF  SOUTH  AMERICAN 
INDEPENDENCE 

(in) 

Captain  Hall — His  friendship  with  San  Martin — San  Martin's  lofty  atti- 
tude— Expression  of  his  views  to  Captain  Hall — Sentiments  of  a  great 
South  American  patriot — His  philosophical  temperament — A  deck- 
washing  episode — Incidents  at  the  fall  of  Lima — The  British  fleet  on 
tlie  Pacific  coast — Popularity  of  the  officers — Part  played  by  them — 
Benavides — Some  incidents  of  a  sinister  career — The  renegade's  escape 
from  death  at  the  hands  of  a  firing-party — Further  betrayals — Bena- 
vides becomes  a  leader  of  the  fierce  Araucanian  Indians — Increase  of 
his  power — He  succeeds  in  capturing  British  and  North  American 
whaling  ships — His  windfalls  in  men  and  munitions — Preparations  to 
invade  Chile — How  cavalry  trumpets  were  made — Captain  Hall  is  sent 
to  negotiate  for  the  rescue  of  the  British  and  North  American  seamen 
— Captain  Hall's  adventures  among  the  Araucanian  Indians — Experi- 
ences at  a  native  orgy — Description  of  the  savage  chief  Peneleo — A 
dangerous  interview — Execution  of  Benavides — Adventures  of  Captain 
Roberton — His  feud  with  the  Italian  desperado  Martilini — His  home 
on  the  island  of  Mocha — His  capture  by  Martilini  and  subsequent  es- 
cape— Martilini,  captured  by  a  French  vessel,  is  sent  as  a  prisoner  to 
France — Roberton  is  imprisoned  by  Bolivar — His  escape — Subsequent 
movements  of  Roberton  and  Martilini — Cruelties  attending  a  Spanish 
imprisonment — Further  atrocities  committed  by  Benavides — Colonel 
O'Carrol  and  Lieutenant  Bayley  as  victims — Captain  Brown  finds  shel- 
ter on  a  British  warship — The  manner  in  which  Colonel  Ferguson's 
life  was  saved — Colonel  O'Connor — Dr.  Moore — Colonel  O'Leary — 
Colonel  Wilson — ^His  remarkable  journey — A  justly  popular  officer — 
The  Scottish  captain  of  the  Spanish  brig  La  Vigie — A  determined  sailor 
— Improvised  ammunition — A  daring  escape — Admiral  Brown — His 
early  career — He  establishes  a  packet  service  between  Buenos  Aires  and 
Montevideo — Founder  of  the  Argentine  navy — Some  naval  facts. 

CAPTAIN  HALL,  as  an  unprejudiced  eye-witness, 
is  one  of  those  who  have  borne  the  most  con- 
vincing testimony  to  the  real  greatness  of  San 
Martin — ^who,  by  the  way,  has  been  referred  to  by  Had- 

214 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  INDEPENDENCE  215 

field  as  of  Irish  de-scent,  a  claim  which  would  seem  doubt- 
ful. A  warm  friendship  appears  to  have  sprung  up  be- 
tween the  two  men.  As  Hall  watched  the  chivalry  and 
self-effacing  genius  of  San  Martin,  his  admiration  deep- 
ened for  the  man  who  solemnly  declared  that  when  his 
task  in  the  field  should  be  concluded  he  intended  to  retire 
from  the  scene  of  his  glory  into  private  life,  and  who,  to 
the  astonishments  of  the  skeptical  world,  fulfilled  his  in- 
tentions to  the  letter! 

San  Martin,  for  his  part,  spoke  very  freely  to  Captain 
Hall.  Decidedly  he  did  not  permit  his  quarrels  with 
Cochrane  to  influence  his  cordial  relations  with  other 
Englishmen.  His  own  aide-de-camp  was  the  very  tall 
and  stately  General  O'Brien,  who  subsequently  became 
the  Uruguayan  consul-general  in  London.  Incidentally 
it  may  be  remarked  that  O'Brien  obtained  at  least  one 
priceless  curiosity  as  a  reward  of  his  services;  for  Mr. 
W.  Bollaert  relates  that  in  1859",  when  in  London,  that 
the  General  showed  him  the  large  and  rich  umbrella- 
shaped  canopy  which  used  to  be  held  over  Pizarro  when 
he  went  in  state.  This  was  given  to  O'Brien  when  the 
South  Americans  entered  Lima  in  triumph. 

In  the  course  of  one  of  his  conviersations  with  Captain 
Hall,  San  Martin  revealed  very  fully  the  reasons  for  the 
policy  which  he  was  then  carrying  out  in  Peru.  The 
nature  of  this  conquest  of  Peru,  he  maintained,  differed 
entirely  from  that  of  Chile.  It  was  not  a  war  of  con- 
quest and  glory ;  it  was  a  war  of  new  and  liberal  princi- 
ples against  prejudice,  bigotry,  and  tyranny.  No  doubt 
San  Martin's  mind  was  running  at  the  time  upon  the 
heated  criticism  of  the  impetuous  Cochrane,  to  whom  this 
species  of  campaign  was  gall  and  wormwood.  "People 
ask,"  said  San  Martin  to  Captain  Hall,  *'why  I  don't 
march  to  Lima  at  once ;  so  I  might,  and  instantly  would, 
were  it  suitable  to  my  views — which  it  is  not.  I  do  not 
want  military  renown — I  have  no  ambition  to  be  the  con- 
queror of  Peru — I  want  solely  to  liberate  the  country 


216     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

from  oppression.  Of  what  use  would  Lima  be  to  me,  if 
the  inhabitants  were  hostile  in  political  sentiment?  How 
could  the  cause  of  independence  be  advanced  by  my  hold- 
ing Lima,  or  even  the  whole  country,  in  military  posses- 
sion? Far  different  are  my  views.  I  wish  to  have  all 
men  thinking  with  me,  and  do  not  choose  to  advance  a 
step  beyond  the  gradual  march  of  public  opinion. ' ' 

Surely  these  words,  delivered  in  San  Martin's  usual 
quiet  tones,  would  in  themselves  be  sufficient  to  stamp 
their  speaker  as  one  of  the  world's  great  men.  Like  his 
brilliant  colleague,  Bolivar,  San  Martin  was  at  least  as 
much  of  a  philosopher  as  a  soldier.  He  was  keenly  alive 
to  the  value  of  local  influences,  and  fully  appreciated  the 
distinctions  which  geographical  situations  must  impose 
on  policy.  He  was  one  of  the  few  of  his  age  and  race 
who  realized  the  perils  which  lay  in  the  path  of  too  head- 
long attempt  at  indiscriminate  progress.  It  was  in  ref- 
erence to  this  that  he  wrote : 

**If  all  Europe  enjoyed  the  liberty  of  the  English  na- 
tion, the  greater  part  of  the  Continent  would  writhe  in 
chaotic  agony;  on  the  other  hand,  the  English  nation 
would  consider  itself  enslaved  were  it  governed  by  the 
Constitution  of  Louis  XVIII.  It  is  right  that  the  Amer- 
ican peoples  should  be  free ;  but  it  is  also  right  that  they 
should  enjoy  their  liberty  in  that  proportion  which  is 
best  suited  to  their  needs.  A  departure  from  this  rule 
would  mean  the  triumph  of  their  enemies." 

The  quotation  of  a  last  reference  to  San  Martin  by 
Captain  Hall  will  show  that  the  General  possessed  the 
temperament,  as  well  as  the  words,  of  a  philosopher — a 
combination  that  is  probably  rarer  than  would  be  im- 
agined. When  the  final  capitulation  of  Lima  was  at  hand, 
San  Martin  took  up  his  quarters  on  a  yacht  which  was 
lying  off  Callao.  '*I  had  occasion,"  explains  Captain 
Hall,  ''to  visit  him  early  one  morning  on  board  his 
schooner,  and  we  had  not  long  been  walking  together 
when  the  sailors  began  washing  the  decks.    'What  a 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  INDEPENDENCE  21T 

plague  it  is,'  said  San  Martin,  'that  these  fellows  will  in- 
sist upon  washing  their  decks  at  this  rate.' — 'I  wish,  my 
friend,'  said  he  to  one  of  the  men,  'you  would  not  wet 
us  here,  but  go  to  the  other  side.'  The  seaman,  how- 
ever, who  had  his  duty  to  do,  and  was  too  well  accus- 
tomed to  the  General's  gentle  manner,  went  on  with  his 
work,  and  splashed  us  soundly.  'I  am  afraid,'  cried  San 
Martin,  'we  must  go  below,  although  our  cabin  is  but  a 
miserable  hole,  for  really  there  is  no  persuading  these 
fellows  to  go  out  of  their  usual  way.'  " 

Obviously,  though  San  Martin  could  lead  troops  and 
win  battles,  he  was  no  swashbuckler! 

When  the  last  Spanish  stronghold  in  South  America, 
Lima,  the  ancient  capital  of  the  viceroys,  was  about  to 
fall,  the  inhabitants  showed  themselves  in  dire  dread  of 
the  anarchy  that  they  feared  would  follow  the  capitula- 
tion. San  Martin  was  very  soon  able  to  prove  to  them 
how  complete  was  his  hold  over  his  men,  and  how  rigidly 
he  maintained  the  ethics  of  law  and  order.  It  appears, 
nevertheless,  that  the  anxiety  of  the  Limanians  had  not 
been  without  foundation;  for,  in  anticipation  of  its  fall, 
several  bands  of  desperate  characters  had  been  hanging 
about  the  outskirts  of  Lima. 

When  Captain  Hall  and  three  companions  were  riding 
toward  Lima,  they  saw  one  of  these  gangs,  a  dozen  strong, 
pull  three  travelers  from  their  horses  and  strip  them  of 
their  cloaks.  After  this,  they  formed  in  line  across  the 
road,  and,  brandishing  their  cudgels,  awaited  the  Eng- 
lishmen. 

"We  cantered  on,  however,"  says  Captain  Hall,  "right 
against  them,  with  our  pistols  cocked  and  held  in  the 
air.  The  effect  was  what  we  expected:  an  opening  was 
made  for  us,  and  the  robbers,  seeing  their  purpose  frus- 
trated, turned  about,  and  became  suddenly  wonderfully 
good  patriots,  calling  out,  'Viva  la  Patria!  Viva  San 
Martin!'  '' 

Perhaps  the  British  commanders  on  the  Pacific  coast 


218     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  merely  repre- 
sented typical  average  specimens  of  the  naval  officer  of 
that  period.  If  so,  the  service  was  as  fortunate  in  her 
men  of  these  days  as  it  has  been  before,  and  since. 

John  Miller  has  left  us  an  interesting  note  concerning 
the  esteem  with  which  the  British  were  regarded  on  the 
Pacific.    He  says: 

''Another  powerful  reason  for  their  preponderating  in- 
fluence was  the  strict  observance  of  the  laws  of  neutrality 
by  the  English  naval  commanders,  and  the  honorable, 
straight-forward,  courteous,  and  manly  frankness  with 
which  English  naval  officers  conducted  themselves. 
Captains  Sir  Thomas  Staines,  Bowles,  Shirreff,  Falcon, 
Sir  Thomas  Hardy  (now  Eear-Admiral),  the  Hon.  Sir 
Robert  Spencer,  Porter,  and  many  other  officers  are  still 
remembered,  and  frequently  mentioned  by  South  Amer- 
icans in  terms  of  the  warmest  regard. ' ' 

The  part  played  by  these  officers  on  the  South  Amer- 
ican station  was  sufficiently  varied.  Occasionally  a  cap- 
tain was  called  upon  to  serve  as  an  ambassador  between 
the  contending  forces.  This  occurred  in  1814  when  Cap- 
tain Hillyar,  of  H.M.S.  Phcebe,  sailed  from  Callao  to  Val- 
paraiso with  proposals  to  the  Chileans  from  the  Viceroy. 
Captain  Hillyar^  then  shepherded  the  patriot  delegates 
to  Talca,  at  which  place  a  meeting  with  the  royalists  was 
arranged,  and  a  short-lived  truce  was  concluded  on  the 
5th  of  May. 

One  of  the  most  sinister  figures  of  the  War  of  Libera- 
tion on  the  Pacific  coast  was  that  of  Benavides.  In  fact, 
this  creature  of  incarnate  ferocity,  bold  animal  courage, 
and  unmitigated  villainy  was  of  a  type  such  as  is  very 
seldom  met  with  outside  the  pages  of  those  melodramatic 
novels  which  are  designed  first  to  thaw  the  shillings  from 
the  public's  pocket  and  then  to  freeze  the  blood! 

Benavides 's  career  was  remarkably  well  filled  with  in- 
cident. From  the  word.  Go!  he  plunged  headlong  into 
iniquity.     A  deserter  from  the  patriot  cause,  he  was  cap- 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  INDEPENDENCE  219 

tured  by  the  Cliileans  at  the  battle  of  Maipii.  Sentenced 
to  be  shot,  in  company  with  two  or  three  other  renegades, 
he  retained  sufficient  presence  of  mind  to  feign  death 
when  severely  wounded  by  the  firing  squad.  Even  when 
a  sergeant  gashed  the  supposed  corpse  across  the  neck 
with  his  saber,  Benavides  gave  no  sign,  though  the  shock 
was  severe  enough  to  cause  him  to  carry  his  head  to  one 
side  for  the  rest  of  his  life. 

Having  recovered  from  his  terrible  wounds — by  a 
species  of  superfluous  miracle — Benavides  managed  to 
ingratiate  himself  with  San  Martin,  and  to  obtain  par- 
don and  reinstatement  in  the  Chilean  forces.  But  con- 
stancy had  no  place  in  Benavides 's  unquiet  spirit.  Very 
soon  afterwards  he  deserted  again  to  the  royalist  cause, 
and  took  up  his  abode  among  the  terrible  Araucanian 
Indian  warriors,  who  at  that  time  were  hostile  to  the 
Chileans. 

The  wild  Araucanians  found  in  Benavides  a  leader  to 
their  taste,  and  they  followed  him  in  many  a  bloody  in- 
cursion into  the  civilized  Southern  provinces  of  Chile. 
Sometimes  the  Spanish  flag  would  wave  over  these  re- 
lentless marauding  bands,  as  they  plunged  out  of  the 
Southern  evergreen  forests,  but  more  often  the  standard 
that  floated  over  the  massacres  was  one  of  Benavides 's 
own  devising. 

After  a  time,  his  power  increasing,  Benavides  began 
to  cast  a  longing  eye  on  the  sea.  An  ambitious  rogue, 
he  foresaw  that  the  conquest  of  the  Pacific  waters  (Coch- 
rane had  not  yet  risen  on  the  horizon)  might  extend  his 
chieftainship  into  something  really  approaching  a  king- 
dom. It  is  at  this  point,  then,  that  he  is  brought  into 
contact  with  the  British  and  Americans. 

Whalers  frequently  came  to  an  anchor  off  the  moun- 
tainous and  wooded  coasts  of  southern  Chile,  and  Bena- 
vides determined  that  a  whaler  he  would  have !  He  suc- 
ceeded even  beyond  his  expectations.  First  of  all  he 
surprised  and  captured  the  American  ship  Hero;  then,  in 


220     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

a  similar  fashion,  he  took  possession  of  the  American  brig 
Herselia.  His  good  fortune  did  not  end  here.  Soon 
afterwards  he  captured  the  British  whaler  Perseverance, 
and,  finally,  the  American  brig.  Ocean,  bearing  thousands 
of  muskets  destined  for  the  patriots,  fell  into  his  clutch ! 

Here  was  Benavides,  already  more  than  half  way  to- 
wards the  realization  of  his  wildest  dreams !  He  had  his 
ships,  a  formidable  supply  of  arms  for  his  Araucanians 
as  well  as  for  the  British  and  North  American  sailors 
whom  he  had  ruthlessly  pressed  into  his  service,  and  the 
gratified  Spanish  authorities  at  Chiloe  had  sent  him  a 
detachment  of  officers  and  men  as  well  as  a  number  of 
field-guns ! 

Benavides  now  began  to  prepare  his  army  for  the 
serious  invasion  of  Chile.  He  combined  an  unusual  de- 
gree of  ingenuity  with  sheer  savagery.  Having  first  of 
all  murdered  the  captain  of  the  Perseverance  for  an  at- 
tempt at  escape,  and  cut  the  body  of  a  sailor  to  pieces  for 
the  same  crime,  he  set  himself  to  commandeer  part  of  his 
new  fleet's  equipment  for  the  benefit  of  his  land  forces. 
Sails  vanished  into  small  pieces — to  become  trousers  for 
his  army !  Welded  by  the  reluctant  hands  of  his  hapless 
ships'  carpenters  and  new  recruits,  harpoons  grew  into 
lances  and  halberts.  Almost  every  essential  of  his  army 
was  obtained  in  the  same  way :  even  cavalry  trumpets  in 
abundance  were  obtained  by  stripping  the  copper  from 
the  bottoms  of  the  ships. 

It  was  the  captain  of  the  Herselia  who  had  given  this 
last  idea  to  Benavides.  A  shrewd  fellow,  he  took  ad- 
vantage of  the  glow  of  incautious  pride  with  which  the 
possession  of  the  trumpets  filled  the  dreaded  chieftain, 
and  contrived,  with  a  number  of  others,  to  escape  in  two 
whale  boats,  and  to  bear  the  news  of  his  comrades'  dis- 
tress to  Valparaiso. 

We  are  now  brought  once  more  into  the  company  of 
our  most  admirable  Captain  Hall,  who  was  ordered  south 
in  order  to  attempt  the  rescue  of  these  British  and  North 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  INDEPENDENCE  221 

American  subjects,  but  not  to  embroil  himself  with  Bena- 
vides — a  sufficiently  difficult  commission! 

When  Hall  arrived  off  Benavides's  headquarters  he 
found  that  this  worthy,  accompanied  by  some  thirteen 
hundred  men,  including  the  British  and  North  American 
seamen,  had  marched  to  the  northeast  from  that  spot. 
Although  Hall  landed  and  proceeded  in  search  of  him,  he 
was  not  able  to  light  upon  Benavides  himself,  who  was 
engaged  in  his  own  species  of  warfare.  The  British  and 
American  sailors  shortly  afterwards  made  their  escape; 
but  it  was  not  Hall's  fate  to  return  to  his  ship  without 
an  adventure,  although  this  was  of  a  quite  different  order 
to  any  that  he  had  expected. 

It  appeared  that  a  chief  of  the  name  of  Peneleo,  an 
ally  of  the  patriots,  had  taken  prisoner  some  of  Bena- 
vides's Indians,  and,  having  slaughtered  one  of  the  men 
before  his  wife's  eyes,  was  about  to  carry  off  the  widow. 
As  the  chief's  camp  was  in  the  neighborhood.  Hall  de- 
termined to  endeavor  to  rescue  the  unfortunate  w^oman, 
although  he  had  been  warned  that  his  quest  w^ould  be 
fruitless,  as  Peneleo  "had  scarcely  anything  human  about 
him, ' ' 

Arrived  at  the  Indian  camp.  Captain  Hall  and  one  of 
his  officers  found  themselves  in  the  midst  of  a  native 
orgy,  and,  incidentally,  in  a  tight  corner.  His  descrip- 
tion of  the  event  is  worth  quoting : 

''On  our  entering  the  court-yard  of  their  quarters,  we 
observed  a  party  seated  on  the  ground,  round  a  great  tub 
full  of  wine ;  they  hailed  our  entrance  with  loud  shouts, 
or  rather  yells,  and  boisterously  demanded  our  business ; 
to  all  appearance,  very  little  pleased  with  the  interrup- 
tion. The  interpreter  became  alarmed,  and  wished  us 
to  retire ;  but  this  I  thought  imprudent,  as  each  man  had 
his  long  spear  close  at  hand,  resting  against  the  eaves  of 
the  house.  Had  we  attempted  to  escape,  we  must  have 
been  taken,  and  possibly  sacrificed,  by  these  drunken  sav- 
ages.    As  our  best  chance  seemed  to  lie  in  treating  them 


228      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

without  any  show  of  distrust,  we  advanced  to  the  circle 
with  a  good-humored  confidence,  which  appeased  them 
considerably.  One  of  the  party  rose  and  embraced  us  in 
the  Indian  fashion,  which  we  had  learned  from  the  gen- 
tlemen who  had  been  prisoners  with  Benavides.  After 
this  ceremony,  they  roared  out  to  us  to  sit  down  on  the 
ground  along  with  them,  and  with  the  most  boisterous 
hospitality  insisted  on  our  drinking  with  them ;  a  request 
which  we  cheerfully  complied  with.  Their  anger  soon 
vanished,  and  was  succeeded  by  mirth  and  satisfaction, 
which  speedily  became  as  outrageous  as  their  displeas- 
ure had  been  at  first." 

The  orgy  grew  rapidly  wilder,  until  the  appearance  of 
Peneleo  himself  put  the  crowning  touch  to  the  picture. 
He  was  rather  more  drunk  tfian  the  rest : 

''A  more  finished  picture  of  a  savage  cannot  be  con- 
ceived. He  was  a  tall,  broad-shouldered  man;  with  a 
prodigiously  large  head,  and  a  square-shaped  bloated 
face ;  from  which  peeped  out  two  very  small  eyes,  partly 
hid  by  an  immense  superfluity  of  black,  coarse,  oily, 
straight  hair,  covering  his  cheeks,  and  hanging  over  his 
shoulders,  rendering  his  head  somewhat  of  the  size  and 
shape  of  a  beehive." 

Peneleo,  surly  and  hostile,  was  in  a  dangerous  mood: 
his  spear  stood  only  too  conveniently  to  his  hand,  and 
it  was  a  matter  of  touch  and  go  whether  the  questions  the 
naval  officer  asked  about  the  captive  woman  would  not  be 
their  last.  As.  for  the  woman  herself,  she  seemed  recon- 
ciled to  her  lot!  From  the  glimpse  they  obtained  of 
her,  Peneleo 's  peculiar  and  sinister  charm  appeared  al- 
ready to  have  wiped  away  her  tears  and  the  memory  of 
her  late  husband !  It  may  have  been  this  that  saved  the 
lives  of  the  officers,  and  let  them  out  of  a  very  serious 
scrape. 

As  for  Peneleo 's  chief,  Benavides,  he  met  with  his 
deserts  on  the  12st  of  February,  1822,  when  he  was  at 
length  brought  to  justice,  and  his  lurid  career  ended. 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  INDEPENDENCE  225 

He  was  dragged  from  the  prison  at  Santiago  in  a  pannier 
tied  to  the  tail  of  a  mule,  and  was  hanged  in  the  Plaza. 

Even  the  more  disciplined  of  those  Southern  Indians  in 
the  Chilean  service  were  not  always  the  most  amiable 
persons  to  meet.  On  one  occasion  when  some  English 
ships  were  visiting  the  port  of  Talcahuano,  they  landed 
a  force  of  marines  who  went  through  some  manoeuvers  in 
company  with  the  Indians.  When  the  marines  had  fin- 
ished, the  Indians  began  their  exercises.  An  eye-witness 
remarked  of  them  that : 

"The  lances  which  they  use  in  real  combat  are  from 
eight  to  ten  feet  in  length,  pointed  with  iron  about  two 
feet  long ;  but  for  fear  of  their  doing  any  mischief,  these 
lances  were  left  behind  at  Conception,  and  in  their  stead 
they  were  armed  with  long  sticks  or  branches  of  trees. 
They  first  formed  themselves  into  a  line,  and  their  ofiScers 
rode  round  and  round  them  at  full  gallop,  probably  as  in 
actual  warfare,  to  remind  them  of  the  exploits  of  their 
ancestors,  and  animate  them  to  heroic  exertion. 

"Meanwhile,  the  Indians  were  sounding  the  note  of 
defiance,  a  sort  of  tremulous,  soft,  melodious  cry,  pro- 
duced by  shaking  the  flat  hand  upon  the  mouth,  while 
they  utter  the  tones.  Next,  the  command  being  given  to 
advance  to  the  charge,  they  drove  their  horses  forward 
at  full  speed,  with  protruded  lances." 

Afterwards  these  Indians,  having,  according  to  their 
usual  custom,  drunk,  not  wisely  but  too  well,  became 
truculent  to  a  degree.     According  to  the  narrator : 

"When  they  arrived  that  same  evening  at  Conception, 
they  galloped  about  the  streets  till  late  at  night,  fighting 
among  themselves  and  terrifying  the  peaceable  inhabi- 
tants. There  seems  to  be  a  strange  mixture  of  pride  and 
meanness  in  the  character  of  these  Indians.  The  three 
Indian  officers  who  dined  in  the  ward  room,  complained 
that  they  were  not  asked  into  the  cabin,  and  yet  these 
same  men  asked  some  of  our  officers  to  give  them  money." 

From  all  this  it  will  be  evident  that  the  temperament 


222      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERIC*^ 

of  this  branch  of  the  famous  Araucanian  warrior  tribes 
was  sufficiently  complex.  Such  episodes  suggest  the  old 
story:  that  the  natives  took  from  the  white  man  his 
worse,  rather  than  his  better,  traits. 

Undoubtedly  the  hero  of  some  of  the  most  extraordi- 
nary adventures  of  the  war  was  Captain  Roberton,  who 
came  out  in  company  with  Captain  Guise — Cochrane 's 
second  in  command  and  eventual  successor — to  join  the 
Chilean  navy.  The  experiences  of  this  daring  sailor 
were  of  the  kind  such  as  are  very  seldom  to  be  met  with 
outside  vivid  and  rather  out-of-date  blood-and-thunder 
paper  covers. 

In  the  course  of  his  career  Roberton  became  involved 
in  a  blood-feud  with  an  Italian  desperado  of  the  name  of 
Martilini,  once  a  boatswain  in  a  patriot  vessel,  who  had 
deserted  to  the  enemy.  On  their  first  meeting  Martilini 
was  wounded  by  Roberton.  Shortly  after  this,  with  the 
permission  of  the  Chilean  Government,  Roberton  took 
up  his  abode  on  the  uninhabited  island  of  Mocha.  There, 
amid  the  southern  Chilean  forests,  where  the  fuchsia  and 
the  beautiful  waxen  petals  of  the  copihue  flower  light  up 
the  aisles  of  vegetation,  he  set  up  a  correspondingly  ro- 
mantic household,  of  the  kind  classified  as  irregular. 
Presently  Martilini  appeared  off  the  island  in  the  pirate 
ship  Quintamlla.  Roberton,  caught  at  a  disadvantage, 
was  torn  away  from  his  leafy  bower,  and,  flung  in  irons 
on  board  the  Quintanilla,  was  reserved  for  an  end  of  tor- 
ture and  death  such  as  is  romantic  only  in  print.  He 
was  preserved  from  this  fate  by  one  of  the  violent  storms 
of  those  latitudes,  which  caused  his  captors  to  release 
him,  and  to  seek  the  aid  of  his  expert  seamanship.  The 
gale  having  subsided,  Roberton  made  use  of  his  tem- 
porary freedom  to  escape,  and,  once  clear  of  the  Quin- 
tanilla, sent  her  commander  a  message  that  promised  a 
taste  of  his  vengeance  on  the  first  opportunity. 

But  this  never  seems  to  have  arisen.  Calms  and  gales 
both  played  their  share  in  preventing  a  further  meeting 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  INDEPENDENCE  225 

between  the  two  enemies,  though  Koberton  pursued  his 
quest  with  the  most  grim  resolution.  After  a  time  mis- 
fortune dogged  the  career  of  both.  Spurred  on  by  some 
mad  freak  of  intoxication — or  mere  grapeless  irresponsi- 
bility— Martilini  planked  three  or  four  roundshot  into 
the  side  of  a  French  brig-of-war  that  he  was  passing, 
trusting  to  the  breeze  to  carry  him  safely  away  from  the 
unprepared  French  vessel !  A  sudden  calm  enveloped  the 
Quintanilla — just  in  the  way  that  a  lurking  enemy  leaps 
from  an  ambush!  The  result  of  this  was  that  he  was 
borne  away  as  a  prisoner  to  France. 

It  was  somewhere  about  this  period  that  Eoberton, 
rashly  venturing  into  the  thorny  wildernesses  of  politics, 
fell  foul  of  Bolivar,  and — as  a  fatefully  ironical  conse- 
quence ! — was  confined  in  one  of  those  very  dungeons  in 
Callao  for  the  abolition  of  which  Bolivar,  in  a  greater 
degree,  and  he  himself,  in  a  lesser,  had  struggled  so 
arduously.  Eoberton,  having  no  taste  for  a  Callao 
dungeon,  escaped  in  a  manner  characteristic  of  him. 
Snatching  his  opportunity,  he  came  charging  out,  knocked 
down  each  sentry  that  opposed  his  exit,  dashed  through 
the  main  guard  with  the  velocity  of  a  stone  shot  from  a 
catapult,  dived  into  the  sea,  swam  out  to  a  merchantman, 
and  got  clear  away. 

Unfortunately  I  have  no  record  of  the  ultimate  fate  of 
Eoberton  and  of  Martilini.  Eoberton  made  his  way 
southwards  again  to  his  loved  island  of  Mocha,  in  the 
verdurous  shades  of  which  he  may,  or  may  not,  have  spent 
the  rest  of  his  days.  As  for  Martilini,  it  is  recorded  that 
in  1828  he  was  again  in  command  of  a  privateer  in  the 
Pacific.  I  have  a  shrewd  suspicion  that  if  ever  Eoberton 
saw  the  other's  topsails  above  the  edge  of  the  waters,  he 
betook  himself  to  some  intricate  forest  nook  with  his 
senora,  until  a  clear  horizon  told  him  that  he  might  safely 
return  to  the  lovely  ruca  that  was  his  romantic — but 
draughty — home ! 

The  fate  of  those  British  officers  in  the  South  American 


226     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

service  whom  tlie  royalists  succeeded  in  capturing  was 
occasionally  of  the  worst.  Captain  Esmonde,  for  ex- 
ample, was  very  scurvily  treated  in  the  dungeons  of 
Callao.  An  act  of  poetic  retribution,  however,  followed, 
for  it  was  on  this  account  that  his  brutal  jailer,  who  de- 
sired to  establish  himself  well  with  the  patriots  at  the 
end  of  the  war,  failed  to  regain  his  Peruvian  estates. 
There  are  several  instances,  too,  of  a  captivity  in  irons 
sufficiently  lengthy  to  lay  the  bones  of  the  sufferers  bare. 
But  Benavides  and  his  band  of  Araucanian  freebooters 
went  far  beyond  anything  committed  by  the  royalist  regu- 
lars in  the  way  of  atrocities.  Among  other  barbarities 
inflicted  on  Colonel  0 'Carrol,  Lieutenant  Bayley,  and 
other  officers  who  fell  into  the  hands  of  these,  was  that  of 
having  their  tongues  cut  out. 

There  were  occasions,  naturally,  when  the  British  Pa- 
cific squadron  found  itself  influenced  by  motives  of  hu- 
manity rather  than  by  the  icy  reasoning  of  pure  neu- 
trality. Thus  when  Captain  Brown  of  the  Argentine 
navy — ^who  had  been  captured  when  in  command  of  the 
Maippo  brig,  and  who  had  for  a  year  lain  under  sentence 
of  death — escaped  to  a  British  warship,  he  found  sanc- 
tuary there;  notwithstanding  the  angry  protests  of  the 
viceroy,  who  *' proved  by  precedents  commencing  in  the 
year  of  our  Lord  1499,  and  ending  Anno  Domini  1808, 
that  the  British  commander  had  overstepped  the  boun- 
daries marked  out  by  international  law. ' ' 

On  another  occasion  the  life  of  Colonel  Ferguson,  one 
of  the  British  aide-de-camps  whom  Bolivar  delighted  to 
have  on  his  staff,  in  his  Southern  campaign,  was  only 
saved  owing  to  the  chance  presence  of  a  boat's  crew  of  a 
British  man-of-war.  Remarking  the  unusually  fair  skin 
of  one  of  a  party  of  patriot  prisoners  drawn  up  for  execu- 
tion on  the  beach,  one  of  the  sailors  ran  up  to  him,  and, 
discovering  that  he  was  an  Irishman,  brought  his  officer 
in  haste  to  the  spot.  In  this  case  the  Spanish  authorities 
must  have  been  in  a  complaisant  mood,  for,  as  a  result  of 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  INDEPENDENCE  227 

the  officer's  intercession,  they  did  not  hesitate  to  com- 
mute the  sentence  on  the  spot.  Ferguson  appears  to 
have  been  a  very  gallant  officer,  and  met  his  death  when 
defending  Bolivar  during  the  outbreak  of  a  conspiracy  in 
September,  1828. 

Some  other  officers  of  Bolivar's,  who  do  not  come 
within  the  scope  of  the  operations  previously  referred 
to,  may  be  mentioned  here.  Among  these  was  Colonel 
O'Connor,  a  gallant  Irish,  who  raised  a  regiment  at 
Panama,  and  brought  it  to  Peru,  where  he  became  notice- 
able for  his  bravery. 

Bolivar — whose  devoted  body-surgeon  was  Dr.  Moore, 
an  Irishman — showed  his  predilection  for  the  British  by 
the  manner  in  which  he  employed  them  on  his  staff.  An- 
other of  his  aides-de-camp,  by  the  way,  was  Colonel 
O'Leary,  who  from  the  age  of  seventeen  had  fought  in 
the  cause  of  South  American  independence,  being  pres- 
ent at  every  engagement  of  importance  that  was  fought 
in  Colombia,  in  the  course  of  which  campaign  he  received 
several  wounds.  He  was  frequently  entrusted  with  im- 
portant diplomatic  missions. 

A  third  British  aide-de-camp  was  Colonel  Belford  Wil- 
son, who,  educated  at  Westminster  and  Sandhurst,  was 
among  the  finest  and  most  promising  of  the  British  com- 
batants in  South  America.  His  qualities  were  fully  ap- 
preciated by  Bolivar,  who  singled  him  out  for  various 
special  missions,  one  of  these  being  the  bearing  of  the 
Constitution  drawn  up  for  the  new  Republic  of  Bolivia. 
In  the  course  of  his  journey  Wilson  covered  the  eighteen 
hundred  miles  between  Lima  and  Chuquisaca  in  nineteen 
days,  and  returned  by  a  slightly  longer  route  in  the  same 
number  of  days ! 

Wilson,  it  may  be  said,  was  exceptionally  popular  with 
all  his  brother  officers,  of  whatever  nationality  they  might 
be.  One  of  his  actions  may  be  quoted  as  giving  a  clue 
to  the  secret  of  this  general  esteem.  Having  been  made 
colonel  at  a  very  youthful  age,  he  refused  for  a  time  to 


228      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

receive  the  rank,  pleading  that  this  very  early  promotion 
was  unfair  to  his  comrades.  In  the  end  it  was  only  in 
obedience  to  Bolivar's  express  orders  that  he  gave  way 
on  the  point. 

To  turn  for  a  moment  to  the  opposite  pole  of  affairs, 
among  the  four  British  subjects  who  fought  on  the  Span- 
ish side  in  the  War  of  Independence  was  a  very  deter- 
mined Scotsman  who  commanded  the  royalist  brig  La 
Vigie.  He  espoused  the  Spanish  cause,  it  appears,  not 
on  account  of  any  political  convictions,  but  in  order  to 
avenge  some  losses  he  had  sustained  at  the  hands  of  the 
patriots. 

The  name  of  this  adventurous  seaman  does  not  appear 
to  have  emerged  from  the  chaos  of  events  with  which  it 
was  associated,  but  his  deeds  made  a  sufficient  impres- 
sion at  that  time.  In  the  course  of  a  gallant  but  most 
uneven  fight  with  the  Chilean  warship  Congreso,  com- 
manded by  Captain  Young,  having  used  up  every  shot  in 
his  locker,  he  continued  to  blaze  away  marline-spikes, 
nails,  and  bits  of  iron,  until  he  had  cleared  his  vessel  of 
the  last  hope  of  anything  in  the  way  of  a  missile !  Then, 
under  a  heavy  fire,  he  made  for  the  shore  in  a  boat. 

A  search  party  of  marines  from  the  Congreso  followed 
him,  and  came  upon  him  concealed  in  a  house.  On  this 
the  intrepid  Scotsman  knocked  down  the  officer  of  marines 
and  two  of  the  privates,  and  escaped  at  the  expense  of  a 
severe  bayonet  wound.  After  this  meteoric  outburst  of 
deeds  his  personality  fades  away  into  the  unknown. 

Presumably  some  day  or  other  the  status  of  many  of 
the  lesser  lights  among  the  historical  personages  of  South 
America  will  become  fixed.  Decidedly  the  process  will 
be  anything  but  a  simple  one  in  view  of  the  extraordinar- 
ily sharp  divergences  that  are  revealed  in  the  contem- 
porary opinions. 

Admiral  Brown  affords  one  of  the  numerous  instances 
of  this,  even  though  his  personality  is  too  important  to 
be  included  among  those  lesser  lights  I  have  referred  to. 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  INDEPENDENCE  229 

The  leading  figure  among  the  sailors  of  the  young  Argen- 
tine navy,  he  is  spoken  of  in  terms  of  unstinted  admira- 
tion not  only  by  the  Argentine  and  Chilean  chroniclers 
of  the  period,  but  also  by  all  the  British  who  happened 
to  be  residing  at  the  time  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
river  Plate. 

Yet  at  this  same  period  Brown  is  referred  to  by  the 
Eev.  R.  Walsh,  a  most  enlightened  and  liberal-minded 
clergyman  resident  in  Brazil,  in  a  totally  different  man- 
ner. Walsh  terms  Brown  a  pirate,  and  alludes  to  him 
thus  in  no  abusive  sense,  but  with  the  calm  detachment 
proper  to  an  uncontrovertible  fact ! 

William  Brown,  who  became  an  admiral  in  the  Argen- 
tine service,  adds  one  more  to  the  long  list  of  Irishmen 
who  fought  in  the  patriot  cause.  Born  in  county  Mayo  in 
1777,  he  went  to  sea  in  his  early  boyhood,  and  after  many 
strenuous  years  the  ship  in  which  he  was  serving,  the 
Eliza,  was  wrecked  at  Ensenada  at  the  mouth  of  the  Rio 
de  la  Plata.  So  far  as  Brown  was  concerned,  this  was  a 
blessing,  very  much  in  disguise,  for  it  led  him  to  the 
threshold  of  his  future  career. 

The  young  Irishman  determined  to  remain  where  fate 
had  cast  him.  In  a  remarkably  short  time  his  enterprise 
had  established  a  packet  service  between  Buenos  Aires 
and  Montevideo,  and  he  had  become  the  owner  of  the 
schooner  Industria. 

Then  the  War  of  Independence  broke  out  into  full 
flame,  and  the  new  Buenos  Aires  authorities,  casting 
about  them  for  a  man  who  should  found  and  fight  a  navy, 
offered  the  post  to  Brown.  He  accepted  without  hesita- 
tion, was  given  captain's  rank,  and  devoted  himself  to  his 
task  with  enthusiasm. 

Brown's  first  squadron  was  inevitably  of  an  impro- 
vised order,  but  it  was  with  such  materials  as  he  had  got 
together  that  he  destroyed  the  greatly  superior  Spanish 
fleet  off  Montevideo  in  May,  1814,  and  thus  brought  about 
the  surrender  of  the  city.    After  this,  seeing  that  there 


230      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

remained  scarcely  anything  for  him  to  do  in  the  Atlantic, 
Brown  prepared  a  squadron  with  which  to  harry  the 
Pacific  coast.  This  consisted  of  the  20-gun  brigantine 
Hercules,  commanded  by  his  brother  Michael,  in  which  he 
sailed  as  commodore,  and  the  16  gun-brigantine  Trini- 
dad, commanded  by  his  brother-in-law,  Walter  Chitty. 
These  were  followed  by  a  subsidiary  squadron  compris- 
ing the  Halcon  and  the  lugger  Uribe,  manned  entirely  by 
Chilean  refugees  and  Argentines.  The  first  three  vessels 
flew  the  Argentine  flag,  but  the  little  Uribe,  thirsting  to 
avenge  the  disaster  of  Rancagua,  sported  the  black  flag 
in  token  of  war  to  the  death.  But  this  grim  standard 
was  destined  never  to  float  over  the  waters  of  the  Pacific ; 
for  the  stormy  water  of  Cape  Horn  swallowed  it  up  with 
the  vessel  that  bore  it. 

The  remaining  vessels  boldly  proceeded  to  blockade 
Callao,  making  various  captures  and  causing  great  alarm 
all  along  the  Pacific  coast.  After  this  they  set  sail  for 
the  north,  and  in  the  middle  of  February,  1816,  they  ap- 
peared off  the  port  of  Guayaquil.  Having  stormed  the 
fort  which  guarded  the  mouth  of  the  port,  the  expedition 
sailed  up  the  river,  and  engaged  the  main  fort  of  San 
Carlos.  Here  the  Trinidid  ran  aground,  and,  finding  her- 
self helpless,  was  obliged  to  surrender.  Brown,  who 
chanced  to  be  on  board  that  vessel,  had  already  stripped 
himself  naked,  and  had  plunged  into  the  sea  in  order  to 
swim  to  the  Halcon,  when  he  perceived  that  those  who  re- 
mained on  the  Trinidad  were  being  slaughtered  by  the 
Spaniards. 

Brown  turned  in  the  water,  and  swam  back  to  the  Trini- 
dad. He  clambered  up  the  ship's  side  unperceived,  and 
in  stealthy  haste  made  his  preparations.  Then,  stark- 
naked,  a  sword  in  one  hand  and  a  lighted  torch  in  the 
other,  he  rushed  to  the  magazine,  and  threatened  to  blow 
up  the  ship  and  all  on  board  unless  the  Spaniards  gave 
quarter  to  his  men.  The  appalled  Spaniards  held  their 
hands,  and  the  gallant  Brown  and  his  men  were  taken 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  INDEPENDENCE  231 

ashore  as  prisoners.  Brown  himself  was  immediately 
exchanged  for  the  Governor  of  Quayaquil,  who  had  been 
captured  just  previously. 

It  may  be  said  that  Brown's  vessel,  the  Hercules,  was 
eventually  taken  in  charge  by  a  British  man-of-war,  and 
was  condemned  at  Antigua  on  account  of  a  violation  of 
the  navigation  laws. 

The  remainder  of  Brown's  career  was  concerned  with 
the  internal  wars  of  a  later  period  of  South  American 
history,  and  we  shall  meet  with  him  again  in  another 
chapter. 


PART  III 

SOUTH  AMERICA  IN  THE  EARLY  PART 
OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE   FIRST   BRITISH   RELATIONS   WITH   THE   NEW 
REPUBLICS 

Naval  chroniclers — Shrewdness  of  their  comments — Respective  situations  on 
the  Atlantic  and  on  the  Pacific — Popular  captains — Petition  of  British 
residents — The  Lima  theater — Captain  Basil  Hall — A  friend  of  San 
Martin — His  intercourse  with  the  Argentine  Liberator — Pen-pictures 
of  the  Pacific  coast — H.M.S.  Briton — Some  experiences  of  her  ships' 
company — A  humorous  episode  at  Piura — H.M.S.  Cambridge  transports 
British  consuls  to  South  America — Tragic  end  of  one  of  these  officials — 
Various  episodes  related  by  the  chaplain  of  the  Cambridge — Some 
notable  names  and  characters  ashore — Sunset  is  delayed  for  an  hour 
when  Bolivar  dines  on  board  the  Cambridge! — Some  local  bills-of-fare 
— Profuse  hospitality  of  the  South  Americans — Part  played  by  British 
merchants — Episode  at  an  official  ball  at  Valparaiso — One  of  the  trage- 
dies of  a  defunct  regime — Manner  in  which  Bolivar  was  received  at  a 
ball  given  by  a  British  merchant — Bolivar's  country  house  near  Bogota 
— Views  of  an  ex-official  of  the  suppressed  Inquisition — Petition  of  a 
cock-fighting  monk — His  letter  to  Lord  Derby — Growth  of  British  popu- 
lation in  Valparaiso — Missionary  and  scholastic  enterprise — A  bur- 
lesque mutiny  and  its  consequences — Experience  of  an  American  mer- 
chant on  the  Pacific  coast — Judge  Prevost  and  his  unfortunate  joke — 
Some  mining  incidents — Interest  evinced  in  London — Bolivar  as  an  ex- 
pert— End  of  the  "boom" — Surveying  on  the  South  American  coast — 
The  voyage  of  the  Chanticleer — Death  of  Captain  Foster — Improvement 
in  sea  food — Origin  of  the  term  "Gringo" — ^A  Chilean  explanation. 

WE  are  largely  indebted  to  that  small  band  of 
British  naval  men  stationed  on  the  Pacific 
coast  at  the  time  of  the  War  of  Independence 
for  a  knowledge  of  the  more  intimate — and  consequently 
more  interesting— details  of  the  social  and  political 
events. 

The  reason  why  so  few  accounts  have  come  down  to  us 
in  the  English  language  of  the  events,  manners,  and 
customs  of  the  river  Plate  countries  in  the  earliest  years 
of  their  independence,  is  neither  political  nor  commercial. 

236 


236     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

It  is  sheerly  geographical,  and  consists  in  the  muddy 
shoals — at  that  time  innocent  of  any  dredger — ^which 
caused  the  visits  of  British  warships  to  be  comparatively 
rare,  and  thus  failed  to  remedy  the  lamentable  lack  of 
naval  note-takers. 

It  was  these  shrewd  naval  observers  who  marked  how, 
when  the  establishment  of  the  patriot  government  had  be- 
come assured  in  any  district,  the  costume  and  customs 
of  the  inhabitants  altered  as  if  by  magic.  They  noted 
how  the  primitive  local  garments  of  the  ladies,  and  the 
cloaks  of  the  men  disappeared,  to  give  place  to  European 
fashions.  They  have  referred,  too,  to  the  assured  and 
confident  air  that  now  followed  the  former  appearance 
of  trouble  and  distrust.  They  watched  the  quick  growth 
of  national  pride,  the  phenomenal  springing  up  of  com- 
merce, and  the  rapid  founding  of  the  schools,  libraries, 
and  centers  of  arts. 

They  noticed  with  admiration,  too,  that,  wherever  the 
patriot  flags  were  unfurled,  two  institutions — bull-fight- 
ing and  slave-trading — immediately  died  away.  Indeed, 
there  were  not  lacking  those  who  asserted  that  the  un- 
usually brutal  exhibitions  of  bull-fighting  at  Lima  formed 
part  of  the  viceregal  plan  for  the  mental  treatment  of  the 
colonists.  But  those  from  whom  these  statements  eman- 
ated were  almost  certainly  carried  away  by  their  anti- 
royalist  sentiments. 

It  is,  of  course,  impossible  to  refer  individually  even  to 
those  of  the  most  notable  group  of  British  naval  officers 
who  served  in  the  Pacific  at  this  period.  Nevertheless, 
Captain  Thomas  Brown  who  sailed  out  in  1823  in  the 
42-gun  frigate  Tartar  to  South  America  deserves  some 
special  mention  for  the  extraordinary  popularity  that  he 
enjoyed  on  the  part  of  both  Spaniards  and  South  Ameri- 
cans. 

Before  the  departure  of  the  Tartar  from  the  South 
American  station.  Captain  Brown  received  from  Bolivar 
a  portrait  of  himself  which  he  had  taken  the  trouble  to 


FIRST  RELATIONS  WITH  NEW  REPUBLICS      237 

send  all  the  way  from  Alto  Peru,  where  the  Liberator 
was  then  engaged.  At  Callao,  on  the  other  hand,  that 
gallant  and  stern  soldier  General  Rodil,  Spain's  last  hope 
in  South  America,  and  Bolivar's  greatest  enemy,  refused 
Brown  leave  to  purchase  ship's  stores,  adding  that,  as  a 
mark  of  his  friendship  and  esteem,  the  British  captain 
must  consent  to  accept  as  a  gift  anything  that  his  ship 
required.  What  more  varied  and  striking  testimony  of 
a  true  popularity  could  there  be ! 

Another  British  commander  whose  personality  cannot 
well  be  overlooked  was  Captain  Bowles,  who  played  a 
sufficiently  important  part  on  the  Atlantic  station.  A 
testimonial  was  drawn  up  at  Buenos  Aires  on  the  24th  of 
March,  1814,  ''to  express  to  you  the  very  high  esteem  with 
which  your  conduct  has  impressed  us,  and  to  offer  you  our 
most  grateful  thanks  for  the  constant  and  efficacious  pro- 
tection you  have  afforded  to  the  British  interests." 

This  is  signed  by  ''John  Nightingale,  George  Dyson,  R. 
Montgomery,  Robert  Orr,  G.  T.  Dickson,  John  M'Neill, 
James  Brittain,  James  Barton,  H.  Chorley,  J.  Thwaites, 
Joshua  Rawdon,  J.  Boyle,  W.  Wanklyn,  W.  Stroud." 
And  to  a  document  in  connection  with  a  presentation 
made  to  this  officer  six  years  later  in  Buenos  Aires  were 
attached  the  signatures,  "Rich.  Carlisle,  G.  T.  Dickson, 
Will.  Cartwright." 

In  those  early  and  troublous  days  of  South  America, 
when  it  was  inevitable  that  the  foreigner  should  suffer 
from  time  to  time  between  the  grinding  wheels  of  patriot 
and  Spaniard,  the  presence  of  a  British  vessel  in  a  port 
was  undoubtedly  a  comfortable  feature  to  the  new  Brit- 
ish settlers  on  the  South  American  coast. 

At  the  foot  of  a  petition  that  "before  the  Indefatigable 
leaves  these  seas  she  may  be  replaced  by  another  vessel 
of  war,  if  it  be  not  incompatible  with  his  Majesty's 
service,"  drawn  up  in  Valparaiso  on  the  27th  of  March, 
1815,  occur  eight  signatures  which  presumably  are  those 
of  some  of  the  most  prominent  British  merchants  then 


238      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

in  the  town.  These  are:  Colon  Campbell,  Jno.  Jas. 
Barnard,  N.  Crompton,  George  Cood,  Andrew  Blest,  John 
Blest,  T.  Beetenson,  and  James  Ingram. 

These  British  naval  men  were,  of  course,  the  only  spec- 
tators who  obtained  a  clear  and  impartial  view  of  the 
social  situation  before  and  after  the  revolution.  Many 
of  the  changes  came  about  with  a  surprising  suddenness. 
So  far  as  the  theater  was  concerned,  for  instance,  the 
transformation  of  the  audience  seems  to  have  been  as 
dramatic  as  anything  which  occurred  on  the  stage.  Here 
is  the  description  of  one  of  these  naval  eye-witnesses,  of 
the  Lima  theater : 

"In  the  evening  there  was  a  play,  but  the  people  we 
had  been  wont  to  see  there  before  the  revolution  were 
all  gone;  and  their  places  occupied  by  Chilian  officers, 
and  by  English,  American,  and  French  merchants,  to- 
gether with  numberless  pretty  Limenas,  a  race  who  smile 
on  all  parties  alike.  The  actors  were  the  same,  and  the 
play  the  same,  but  everything  else — dress,  manners,  lan- 
guage— was  different:  even  the  inveterate  custom  of 
smoking  in  the  theater  had  been  abolished  by  a  public 
decree." 

To  my  mind,  as  I  have  already  said,  the  most  outstand- 
ing of  the  records  of  the  Pacific  coast  during  the  last 
period  of  the  War  of  Liberation  and  the  first  few  years 
of  the  independence  are  those  of  Captain  Basil  Hall. 
Hall  reveals  himself  as  an  admirable  type  of  the  British 
sailor,  and  it  is  clear  that  his  kindly  geniality  won  for  him 
as  much  popularity  as  his  firmness  gained  him  respect. 

Enjoying  as  he  did  the  intimate  friendship  of  San 
Martin,  the  great  Argentine  would  unbosom  himself  to 
him  of  his  hopes  and  fears,  plans  and  ideals.  Much  has 
been  written  of  late  of  San  Martin,  and  it  is  a  little  diffi- 
cult to  understand  why  Hall's  first-hand  and  intimate 
testimony  has  been  so  seldom  referred  to.  The  British 
sailor's  admiration  for  San  Martin  was  by  no  means 
universally  shared  at  the  time  it  was  evoked.     There 


FIRST  RELATIONS  WITH  NEW  REPUBLICS     239 

were  many  who  doubted — and,  after  all,  this  doubt  was 
not  so  unnatural  a  thing  in  those  who  did  not  know  the 
General — the  sincerity  of  San  Martin's  statements  that 
he  desired  all  for  his  country,  nothing  for  himself.  But 
Hall  was  not  among  those  who  doubted.  His  fervid  pen- 
picture  of  the  Liberator  was  justified  to  the  full  by  sub- 
sequent events,  when  San  Martin,  having  achieved  his 
great  work,  voluntarily  descended  from  his  pinnacle  in 
the  full  blaze  of  publicity,  and  entered  private  life — and, 
incidentally,  an  oblivion,  from  the  tragedy  of  which  his 
name  was  not  drawn  until  more  than  half  a  century  later. 

Captain  Hall  has  provided  a  set  of  pictures  of  the 
life  of  the  Pacific  coast  which  are  in  many  respects  unique. 
Moreover,  whether  he  were  chatting  with  San  Martin, 
being  entertained  ashore,  protecting  British  interests,  ne- 
gotiating between  royalists  and  South  Americans,  or  fac- 
ing a  hostile  Spanish  mob  at  Callao,  as  was  once  his  lot, 
he  appears  to  have  risen  to  the  occasion  with  the  most 
admirable  equanimity. 

The  complications  which  the  British  naval  ofiQcers  on 
the  South  American  station  had  to  face  during  the  first 
year  or  two  of  the  War  of  Independence  were  not  light- 
ened by  the  fact  that  we  were  at  the  time  at  war  with  the 
United  States. 

In  the  course  of  this  the  United  States  frigate  Essex 
worked  considerable  damage  to  the  British  whale  fishery 
in  the  Southern  seas,  and  at  the  end  of  1813  H.M.  frigate 
Briton,  38  guns,  was  ordered  to  the  Pacific  to  endeavor 
to  meet  with  the  American  vessel. 

The  Briton  did  not  meet  with  the  Essex  (this  vessel, 
after  a  desperate  resistance,  having  already  been  cap- 
tured by  the  Phoebe  and  Cherub),  although  she  spoke  with 
some  of  the  whaler  captains  who  had  been  victims  of  the 
American  frigate's  raid,  and,  among  some  green  bushes 
at  Chatham  Island,  found  the  tomb  of  a  Lieutenant 
Co  wen,  one  of  the  Essex's  officers,  who  had  fallen  in  a 
duel  with  a  brother  officer  named  Gamble. 


240     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

The  Briton's  company  saw  a  good  deal  of  the  Pacific 
coast.  When  lying  off  Callao,  they  saw  much  of  the  good 
people  of  Lima,  and  this  is  what  Lieutenant  John  Shil- 
libeer,  in  command  of  the  marines,  has  to  say  of  them: 
*'The  ladies  being  pretty,  and  possessing  a  more 
than  ordinary  share  of  interesting  vivacity,  we  were 
led  so  imperceptibly  to  the  point  of  departure,  that  it 
had  arrived  before  we  could  have  hoped  it  had  half 
elapsed." 

This  is  well  meant,  but  almost  as  involved  as  the  morals 
of  a  lady  who,  at  the  Northern  port  of  Piura,  came  off 
with  a  number  of  others  to  visit  the  Briton.  In  1814  the 
rage  for  collecting  souvenirs  from  visiting  warships  had 
not  reached  its  height,  so  her  action  in  pocketing  a  certain 
amount  of  the  Briton's  silver  proved  that  her  ideas  an- 
ticipated the  times.  She  was  obviously  confused  when 
the  Captain's  steward  retrieved  from  her  capacious 
pockets  a  silver  knife  and  other  objects  of  the  kind. 
Nevertheless,  there  seem  to  have  been  circumstances 
which  made  this  appropriation  rather  out  of  the  ordinary. 
"It  may  be  urged  in  extenuation  of  her  fault,"  gravely 
explains  Shillibeer,  ''that  Lord  Anson,  at  his  visit  there, 
had  played  a  trick  or  two  on  the  family  from  which  she 
was  descended." 

Could  Anson  only  have  foreseen  one  of  the  results  of 
his  famous  voyage! 

In  1823  H.M.S.  Cambridge  set  out  for  South  America, 
having  on  board  four  British  consuls,  Messrs,  Rowcroft, 
Nugent,  Parish,  and  Hood,  who  were  appointed  respec- 
tively to  Lima,  Valparaiso,  Buenos  Aires,  and  Mon- 
tevideo. Each  of  these  officials  was  provided  with  two 
vice-consuls.  Doubtless  the  South  American  squadron 
was  not  ill-pleased  when  British  consuls  were  appointed 
to  the  Pacific  coast,  for,  until  the  advent  of  those  useful 
agents,  all  official  matters  and  commercial  difficulties 
which  cropped  up  between  the  South  Americans  and  the 
British  had  to  be  adjusted  by  the  British  naval  com- 


FIRST  RELATIONS  WITH  NEW  REPUBLICS     241 

mander-in-chief,  who  thus,  whether  he  would  or  not, 
became  a  Jack-of-all-trades,  ashore  as  well  as  afloat. 

All  the  consuls  reached  their  destinations  safely,  but 
Mr.  Rowcroft  met  his  end  under  tragic  circumstances  very 
soon  after  he  had  taken  up  his  post.  He  had  been  din- 
ing on  board  the  Cambridge,  and  was  anxious  to  return 
to  Lima  after  nightfall.  He  had  been  warned  that  this 
attempt  would  be  dangerous,  since  the  uniform  of  the  city 
of  London  cavalry  which  he  wore  somewhat  resembled 
that  of  a  Spanish  officer,  for  which  it  might  easily  be  mis- 
taken in  the  dark.  But  the  unfortunate  official  deter- 
mined to  set  out,  and  the  predicted  catastrophe  occurred. 
The  patriot  guard,  making  certain  that  it  was  a  Spaniard 
advancing  toward  them,  fired,  and  Rowcroft  died  the 
next  morning  from  his  wounds. 

It  may  be  remarked  here  that,  although  Great  Britain 
had  appointed  her  consuls  to  most  of  the  new  republics 
as  early  as  1823,  some  time  was  destined  to  elapse  before 
the  weight  of  full  diplomatic  relations  was  added.  The 
first  envoy  extraordinary  and  minister  plenipotentiary  to 
be  appointed  was  Mr.  Alexander  Cockburn  who  was  sent 
to  Colombia  in  1826.  After  this  Sir  R.  Ker  Porter  was 
appointed  charge  d  'affaires  to  Venezuela  in  1835 ;  in  1837 
Mr.  W.  Wilson  proceeded  in  a  similar  capacity  to  Bolivia. 

The  diplomatic  equipment  of  the  entire  continent  soon 
followed,  with  the  result  that  South  America  was  no 
longer  regarded  as  a  collection  of  experimental  groups  of 
humanity  but  as  a  gathering  of  friendly  states,  each  of 
which  was  rapidly  growing  in  importance. 

To  the  chronicles  of  Miller,  Cochrane,  and  Hall  might 
well  be  added  those  of  the  chaplain  of  H.M.S.  Cambridge, 
who  modestly  writes  under  the  initials  H.  S.  His  pages 
are  few  and  small,  but  they  are  filled  with  most  interest- 
ing matter.  Among  the  personages  he  met  was  the  Span- 
ish General  Rodil,  who  came  to  dine  on  board  the  Cam- 
bridge shortly  after  the  fall  of  Callao — a  stronghold  which 
he  had  defended  with  a  tenacity  in  the  face  of  hopeless 


242      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

odds  such  as  none  but  a  man  of  his  extraordinary  de- 
termination and  courage  could  have  exhibited.  It  was 
Rodil  who,  for  month  after  month,  maintained  the  spirit 
of  the  diseased  and  starving  garrison.  His  methods  were 
occasionally  relentless  and  bloodthirsty ;  but  he  himself  at 
all  times  set  the  highest  example  of  courage  and  watch- 
fulness. His  activities  were  ceaseless  by  day  and  by 
night,  and  he  was  invariably  to  be  found  at  the  point  of 
danger.  When  the  inevitable  end  drew  near,  Rodil  ate 
and  slept  on  the  parapets,  never  once  entering  his  quar- 
ters, while  his  beard,  for  want  of  shaving,  grew  long  upon 
his  face.  What  an  heroic  figure  would  have  been  Rodil's, 
had  he  served  a  victorious  cause ! 

It  is  the  chaplain  of  the  Cambridge  who  relates  how, 
at  the  hauling  down  of  the  Spanish  ensign  at  Callao,  Cap- 
tain Simpson,  of  the  Peruvian  navy,  stood  near  the  in- 
domitable Rodil,  and  remarked  that  the  Spanish  gen- 
eral's face  remained  impassive,  and  that  he  even  smiled 
slightly — as  well  he  might  in  the  consciousness  of  a  duty 
so  heroically,  if  ruthlessly,  done. 

It  is  he,  too,  who  gives  us  a  wealth  of  such  instructive 
paragraphs  as  the  following:  *'We  reached  Santiago 
about  two  o'clock.  Lord  Byron  and  I  drove  to  the  house 
of  the  agent  for  the  Chilean  Mining  Association,  where 
we  found  a  hearty  welcome  and  invitation  to  fix  our  abode 
during  our  stay  in  the  place.  We  dined  at  the  English 
inn,  and  in  the  evening  went  to  visit  at  the  house  of 
Admiral  Blanco.  Here  I  met  with  Martin  de  la  Vega, 
an  old  man  of  eighty-four,  who  dances  at  all  the  tertulias ; 
he  is  chaplain  in  the  army ;  and  before  I  had  known  him 
half  an  hour,  he  told  me,  I  am  the  man  mentioned  by 
Captain  Hall,  in  his  book  on  South  America." 

Here  is  another  fragment  that  introduces  a  number  of 
sufficiently  notable  names:  ''This  evening  I  rode  up  to 
Lima  in  the  stage  coach  which  has  been  lately  established, 
in  company  with  Gillespie.  I  established  myself  in  Mrs. 
Walker's  hotel,  near  the  Church  of  San  Augustin.    The 


FIRST  RELATIONS  WITH  NEW  REPUBLICS     243 

next  morning  I  called  on  General  O'Higgins,  who  very 
obligingly  invited  me  to  dine  with  him.  General  Sands, 
an  Englishman,  who  has  been  nine  years  in  the  Colombian 
service,  and  Mrs.  Houston  were  of  the  party.  Gen. 
O'Higgins 's  mother,  a  pleasant  lively  old  woman,  and  his 
sister,  a  lady  apparently  about  fifty,  dined  with  us.  The 
conversation  was  various  and  most  agreeable,  and  the 
dinner  sumptuous,  and  dressed  much  in  the  English 
stile." 

On  one  occasion,  when  Bolivar  was  dining  on  board 
H.M.S.  Cambridge,  the  boats  had  been  ordered  at  sunset. 
So  agreeable  did  the  entertainment  prove  that  the  British 
commander,  possibly  bearing  Joshua  in  mind,  gave  orders 
that  the  sun  was  not  to  set  until  half  an  hour  after  its 
usual  time.  And  the  sun  obeyed — so  far  as  the  ship's 
routine  was  concerned!  When  the  Liberator  in  his 
gorgeous  uniform  descended  the  gangway  at  the  hour  of 
official  sunset  the  dusk  had  fallen,  and  the  stars  had  be- 
gun to  shine !  On  this  occasion  his  appearance  was  thus 
described:  ''His  countenance  seems  open,  and  his  con- 
versation lively  and  unassuming ;  but  his  whole  figure  and 
face  are  those  of  a  man  worn  out  with  care  and  toil." 

Bolivar  made  evident  his  appreciation  of  the  Cam- 
bridge's entertainment  by  a  slight  testimonial  which  he 
sent  on  board  the  next  day.  Ten  bullocks  and  fifty  sheep ! 
Even  in  those  days  there  was  nothing  niggardly  in  South 
American  courtesies ! 

Indeed,  this  generous  species  of  hospitality  was  illus- 
trated in  a  remarkable  fashion  even  at  a  dinner  given  by 
the  local  priest.  Here  the  meal  was  ushered  in  by  vermi- 
celli soup  and  boiled  fowl ;  after  which  came  ' '  two  dishes 
of  boiled  meats,  beef,  tongue,  and  a  fat  ham,  all  mixed  to- 
gether, and  surrounded  with  vegetables,  pumpkin,  cab- 
bage, and  potatoes."  To  top  up  this  profusion  arrived 
a  roast  turkey  and  a  dish  of  baked  cream!  One  is  con- 
strained to  believe  that  this  was  not  the  good  cura's 
normal  fare !     Let  it  be  added  that  at  a  dinner  at  another 


244     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

establishment  two  turkeys  were  brought  to  the  table,  the 
one  hot,  and  the  other  cold,  both  ornamented  with  sweet- 
meats and  gold  leaf. 

It  must  not  be  imagined  that  the  civilian  element  had 
played  no  part  in  the  stirring  events  of  the  day.  Mr. 
John  Miller,  who  wrote  the  '^ Memoirs  of  General  Millar," 
freely  acknowledges  the  various  services  rendered  by  the 
British  mercantile  community  of  the  Pacific  coast  to  the 
South  Americans.  He  cites  the  case  of  some  English 
merchants  who  joined  the  patriot  cavalry  in  the  charge  at 
Maipu — the  most  conspicuous  of  these  being  Messrs. 
Samuel  Haigh  and  James  Barnard.  He  mentions,  too, 
cases  of  private  benevolence  and  friendly  offices. 

But  it  was  another  matter,  protests  Mr.  Miller,  when  it 
came  to  hard  and  fast  business — when  the  justice  of  the 
respective  claims  of  the  patriot  or  royalist  causes  were 
apt  to  become  diminished  in  importance  before  the  per- 
sonal considerations  involved  in  the  questions  of  per- 
centage and  profit.  This  may  well  have  been  so.  The 
community  would  not  have  been  the  first  to  drown  senti 
ment  in  financial  success ! 

The  attention  of  the  average  person  who  troubles  him- 
self about  this  period  is  so  apt  to  be  taken  up  by  the 
spectacle  of  the  patriot  victories  and  of  the  triumphant 
vindication  of  their  rights  that  one  is  apt  to  forget  that, 
the  more  brilliant  the  light,  the  darker  the  shade.  Much 
has  been  heard  of  the  Spanish  haughtiness  and  arrogance ; 
but  there  was  the  other  side  of  the  picture.  Captain  Hall 
gives  us  a  pathetic  glimpse  of  this  in  his  description  of 
an  elaborate  official  ball  at  Valparaiso — an  entertainment 
at  which  the  Chilean  ladies  appeared  in  the  most  magnifi- 
cent toilettes.  But  Captain  Hall  happened  to  look  into  a 
side  chamber,  where  lurked  the  skeleton  of  the  feast. 
This  is  what  he  saw: 

''I  was  struck  by  the  appearance  of  several  lady-like 
young  women  standing  on  chairs  and  straining  their  eyes, 
as  they  looked  over  the  heads  of  the  servants  and  musi- 


BRITISH   SOUTH  AMERICANS 


A    BRITISH    SOUTH    AMERICAN'    ON    HIS    RANCHO 


FIRST  RELATIONS  WITH  NEW  REPUBLICS     245 

cians  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  strangers  in  the  ballroom, 
from  which  they  appeared  to  be  excluded.  Seated  on  a 
sofa  in  the  corner  near  them  were  two  stately  old  ladies, 
simply  though  elegantly  dressed,  who  did  not  appear  to 
sympathize  with  their  children  in  eagerness  about  the 
ball,  but  sat  apart  quietly  conversing  together.  In  their 
countenances,  which  retained  traces  of  considerable 
beauty,  there  dwelt  a  melancholy  expression ;  while  their 
demeanor  indicated  an  indifference  to  all  that  was  pass- 
ing. On  enquiry,  it  appeared  that  they  were  old  Span- 
iards, who,  under  the  former  administration  of  the  coun- 
try, had  been  persons  of  wealth  and  consequence,  but 
whose  existence  was  now  scarcely  known." 

While  on  the  subject  of  these  entertainments,  we  may 
skip  a  few  years,  and  remark  on  one  which  took  place  in 
Peru.  On  New  Year's  day  of  1825  an  English  merchant 
in  Lima  gave  a  ball  in  honor  of  Bolivar  and  of  the  battle 
of  Ayacucho.  This  was  a  very  full-dress  affair,  a  strong 
band  being  in  attendance,  and  bunting  flying  freely.  At 
one  end  of  the  ballroom  was  a  full-length  portrait  of 
Bolivar,  done  on  canvas,  while  a  similar  likeness  of  Sucre 
adorned  the  opposite  wall. 

When  Bolivar  entered  the  room  there  was  considerable 
acclamation,  the  orchestra  striking  up  the  Colombian  na- 
tional air.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  this  portrait  of  Bolivar 
was  a  success,  for  the  sake  of  the  Liberator,  for  to  be 
confronted  all  the  evening  by  a  libellous  replica  of  one- 
self must  be  depressing  even  to  a  person  of  such  indomi- 
table spirit  as  Bolivar!  Considering  the  almost  certain 
absence  of  any  really  capable  artist  in  those  stirring 
times,  one  is  inclined  to  fear  the  worst.  Bolivar,  how- 
ever, could  not  have  been  much  disconcerted,  for  after 
supper  he  waltzed  with  a  young  lady  of  Lima. 

It  may  interest  admirers  of  Bolivar  to  learn  that  the 
General  possessed  a  very  pretty  country  house  at  the 
foot  of  a  picturesque  ravine  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Bogota.    In  this  pleasant,  verandaed  building,  set  in  the 


246     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

midst  of  the  forest,  and  surrounded  by  gardens  laid  out 
in  the  French  style,  Bolivar  was  wont  to  entertain  his 
friends  at  numerous  dinner  parties.  Here,  according  to 
a  contemporary  authority,  he  appeared  to  great  advan- 
tage, "evincing  the  good  humor  and  urbanity  of  his  dis- 
position, though  never  descending  from  his  finished,  gen- 
tlemanly manner." 

Occasionally  when  the  old  order  came  into  collision 
with  the  new,  the  result  was  tragic,  as  when,  for  instance, 
the  old  Spaniards  found  themselves  deprived  not  only  of 
their  property  and  social  position  but  of  their  homes. 
Just  as  often  the  upshot  had  its  ludicrous  side.  Delu- 
sions were  apt  to  be  shattered  on  either  side.  The  pop- 
ular notion,  for  instance,  that  the  oflQcials  of  the  Inquisi- 
tion were  of  necessity  callously  hypocritical  as  well  as 
cruel  in  the  exercise  of  their  grim  duties  is  not  always 
borne  out  by  a  closer  acquaintance  with  these  men.  A 
minor  instance  of  this  occurred  at  Lima,  just  after  the 
abolition  of  the  Inquisition  at  that  place.  One  of  the  ex- 
priests  of  that  much  dreaded  institution  happened  to  find 
himself  in  company  with  some  Englishmen  who  were  din- 
ing, and  after  an  acquaintance  had  been  struck  up  he 
turned  to  an  acquaintance,  and  exclaimed  in  genuine  dis- 
tress: **0h!  What  a  pity  it  is  that  such  fine  rosy-look- 
ing, good  young  men,  should  all  necessarily  and  inevitably 
go  to  the  Devil ! ' ' 

Another  curious  character  of  the  Pacific  coast  at  this 
period  was  a  monk  who  was  passionately  addicted  to  cock- 
fighting.  Having  made  the  acquaintance  of  the  chaplain 
of  H.M.S.  Cambridge,  he  begged  the  latter  to  write  to 
Lord  Derby,  whose  breed  he  had  heard  was  the  best  in 
England,  in  order  to  ask  for  four  fighting-cocks  and  as 
many  hens! 

In  the  end  he  himself  compiled  a  letter  to  Lord  Derby, 
and  demanded  the  favor  in  a  collection  of  most  ingenu- 
ous sentences.  Whether  the  epistle  ever  reached  Lord 
Derby  I  do  not  know. 


FIRST  RELATIONS  WITH  NEW  REPUBLICS     247 

All  this  time,  of  course,  society  was  consolidating  it- 
self in  the  more  important  towns  of  the  Pacific  coast. 
The  South  Americans  rapidly  adapted  themselves  to  the 
liberal  notions  of  existence  which  now  prevailed,  and  the 
intercourse  between  them  and  the  British  continually  de- 
veloped. The  importance  of  the  immigration  of  these 
latter  may  be  gathered  from  the  fact  that  in  1823  the 
British  population  of  Valparaiso,  which  at  the  time  con- 
tained some  ten  thousand  inhabitants,  amounted  to  no 
less  than  a  thousand.  In  the  meantime  a  Mr.  Thompson, 
a  missionary,  founded  Lancasterian  schools  at  Buenos 
Aires,  Montevideo,  and  Santiago.  He  subsequently, 
about  1821,  founded  a  fourth  at  Lima.  It  is  noteworthy 
of  remark  here  that,  although  he  met  with  considerable 
opposition  in  Peru,  he  received  the  hearty  support  of  the 
clergy  and  monks. 

Lancastrian  schools  were  established,  too,  in  Colom- 
bia and  Venezuela  almost  before  the  North  was  liberated, 
one  of  the  first  being  at  Cartagena. 

An  even  bolder  flight  of  enterprise  was  initiated  in 
1823,  when  another  missionary  caused  the  New  Testa- 
ment to  be  translated  into  Quichua,  the  language  of  the 
ancient  and  modern  Peruvian  Indians. 

No  picture  of  this  kind,  of  course,  could  be  without  its 
reverse.  A  quaint  Northern  instance  of  the  confusion 
and  mental  giddiness  into  which  too  powerful  and  rapid 
a  dose  of  liberty  had  flung  the  inhabitants  of  many  of  the 
districts  is  related  by  a  naval  officer  with  some  humor : 

**0n  Christmas  Eve,  at  the  time  we  were  sailing  up 
the  river,  the  whole  army  of  the  State  of  Guayaquil,  con- 
sisting of  one  regiment,  marched  out  of  the  town,  and 
having  taken  up  a  position  half  a  league  off,  sent  in  a 
message  at  daybreak  to  the  Governor,  to  say  that  they 
were  determined  to  serve  under  no  other  flag  than  that 
of  Bolivar ;  and  unless  they  were  indulged  in  this  matter, 
they  would  instantly  set  fire  to  the  town.  The  Governor, 
with  the  good  sen^e  and  prudence  of  utter  helplessness, 


248     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

sent  his  compliments  to  the  troops,  and  begged  that  they 
would  do  just  as  they  pleased.  Upon  the  receipt  of  this 
civil  message,  one  half  of  the  regiment  were  so  much 
pleased  with  having  the  matter  left  to  their  own  free 
choice,  and  being  rather  anxious,  perhaps,  for  their  break- 
fast, which  was  waiting  for  them,  agreed  to  relinquish 
the  character  of  rebels,  and  come  quietly  back  to  their 
allegiance. ' ' 

It  is  on  such  Gilbertian  foundations  as  these  that  many 
Englishmen  build  up  their  conception  of  South  America 
of  to-day!  For,  all  that,  it  is  true  enough  that  the  early 
nineteenth  century  provided  plenty  of  instances  of  the 
kind  throughout  the  continent.  That  the  temperament 
of  the  South  American  need  not  of  necessity  be  mercurial 
was  discovered  somewhat  to  his  cost  by  a  North  Ameri- 
can merchant  who  in  the  early  1820 's  landed  thirteen 
arrohas  of  sugar  at  the  port  of  Chorillos  on  the  Peruvian 
coast.  To  his  dismay  he  found  that  the  peasants  em- 
ployed to  carry  the  goods  from  the  beach  to  the  town  in- 
sisted on  pocketing  a  proportion  of  the  sugar.  Nothing 
would  stop  them.  The  scandalized  merchant  beat  the 
men  with  his  fists  until  he  had  to  cease  for  the  simple 
reason  that  his  knuckles  were  worn  out.  They  took  his 
blows  with  perfect  stolidity,  accepting  them  in  tacit  ex- 
change for  the  sugar,  of  which  they  continued  to  pocket 
what  they  considered  their  share  with  a  calm  and  un- 
breakable resolution?  They  made  no  attempt  to  molest 
their  employer,  and  the  American  may  well  have  thought 
himself  fortunate  in  emerging  from  the  situation  with  the 
loss  of  nothing  beyond  one  out  of  his  thirteen  arrohas  of 
sugar. 

Among  the  other  incidents  of  the  early  days  of  libera- 
tion there  is  an  amusing  story  told  of  a  certain  Judge 
Prevost,  a  jocular  agent  from  the  United  States,  who 
was  in  Buenos  Aires  in  the  1820 's — that  period  of  giddily 
rapid  governmental  transition.  Judge  Prevost  made  a 
habit  of  stepping  on  to  the  balcony  of  his  house  every 


FIRST  RELATIONS  WITH  NEW  REPUBLICS     249 

morning  and  of  demanding  of  the  first  person  who  would 
chance  to  pass  beneath,  "Who  governs  to-day?"  Little 
things  lead  to  men's  undoing,  and  it  was  the  coincidence 
of  meeting  a  brother  wag — who  replied,  ''Quien  sdbef 
(who  knows!) — one  fine  morning  that  led  to  his  abrupt 
departure  from  Buenos  Aires,  It  was  Prevost's  delight 
to  tell  this  story:  it  never  failed  in  its  reception.  Un- 
fortunately for  himself  he  told  it  once  too  often,  and  it 
reached  the  ears  of  a  governor  who  was  lacking  in  humor, 
and  who  was  determined  to  let  the  official  from  the  United 
States  know  who  was  governing  that  morning !  So  poor 
Judge  Prevost  had  orders  to  depart  forthwith,  and  four 
hours  later  found  himself  bound  for  Chile  in  the  good 
vessel  Enterprise,  the  property  of  a  Mr.  Samuel  Haigh — 
who  has  already  been  mentioned  for  his  gallant  assistance 
to  the  Chilean  cause — who  was  himself  traveling  in  the 
ship  at  the  time. 

After  this  smart  reminder  of  that  of  which  the  age  was 
still  capable,  it  is  time  to  return  to  the  practical  and 
commercial  side  of  the  situation.  No  sooner  was  Peru 
in  the  hands  of  the  South  Americans  and  its  industries 
and  commerce  open  to  the  world  than  an  intense  excite- 
ment manifested  itself  in  the  London  mining  market. 
The  mines  of  Peru — where,  incidentally,  an  Englishman 
of  the  name  of  Green  was  already  superintending  the 
brand-new  coinage  at  the  Lima  mint — were  calling,  with 
the  magical  name  of  Potosi  written  in  glittering  letters  in 
the  sky  high  above  all  the  rest ! 

On  'change  in  London  Town  bankers  and  merchants 
nodded  together  with  the  ponderous  and  chastened  wis- 
dom of  the  financier,  their  eyes  filled  with  the  yellow  gold 
of  Peru  that  filtered  through  the  London  sunshine,  and 
with  the  silver  that  blinked  more  dully  through  the  mist. 

To  do  them  justice,  the  inhabitants  of  young  independ- 
ent South  America  tumbled  to  the  situation  with  a  rapid- 
ity which  augured  well  for  their  future  careers  as  busi- 
ness men.    In  their  eyes  it  is  possible  that  the  mines  were 


250      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

of  rather  less  import  than  the  company  of  important  and 
eager  gentlemen  who  were  reported  to  be  hastening  to 
the  spot  from  London,  bearing  extraordinary  powers  and 
authorities  to  deal  in  mines  on  a  scale  such  as  mines  had 
never  been  dealt  in  before! 

So  those  who  had  mines  prepared  to  sell  them  then 
and  there,  and  those  who  had  none  prepared  to  sell  some 
one  else's — and  frequently  succeeded  in  the  attempt! 
Never,  too,  was  there  such  a  furbishing  up  of  old  and 
exhausted  mines,  of  which,  the  rights  lay  by  the  law  of 
the  land  at  the  disposal  of  the  first  comer!  Local  com- 
panies were  formed  with  the  object  of  securing  every 
mineral  field  which  might  be  bought  for  a  song,  and 
every  effort  was  made  to  receive  the  mine  buyers  with 
forethought  and  suitable  attention ! 

In  due  course  the  commissioners  arrived.  Once  upon 
the  scene,  several  of  these  turned  out  to  be  old  friends 
of  the  local  mine-magnates — Englishmen  who  had  taken 
part  in  the  revolution  and  who,  having  convinced  the  Eng- 
lish capitalists  of  their  knowledge  of  the  Peruvian  min- 
ing world,  now  returned  to  the  scene  of  their  former  ex- 
ploits, some  of  them  traveling  en  prince  this  time,  ac- 
companied by  secretaries,  technical  advisers,  and  valets. 

In  London,  fed  by  ardent  reports  from  South  America, 
the  speculation  in  these  matters  grew  more  and  more  in- 
tense. Had  the  worthy  investors  known  the  language  of 
to-day,  they  would  have  declared  that  their  market  was 
booming.  The  shares  of  one  or  two  of  those  institutions 
which  had  sent  out  the  most  elaborate  commissioners  ac- 
tually rose  to  one  hundred  times  the  amount  of  their 
original  value,  and  had  all  the  appearance  of  being  about 
to  continue  to  soar  at  the  same  pace  for  an  indefinite 
period. 

In  the  meantime  Bolivar  himself  had  taken  a  hand  in 
this  Peruvian  mining  enterprise.  It  is  a  little  difficult 
for  the  casual  historian  to  associate  the  romantic  figure 
of  the  Liberator  of  half  South  America  with  any  dealings 


FIRST  RELATIONS  WITH  NEW  REPUBLICS     251 

of  the  kind.  But  when  the  occasion  arose  Bolivar  showed 
himself  as  fully  alive  as  any  one  else  to  the  value  of  min- 
ing scrip.  First  of  all  he  rescinded  the  law  which  al- 
lowed the  first  comer  to  take  possession  of  unworked 
mines — a  decree  which  was  subsequently  revoked  in  turn ; 
then  he  put  up  for  sale  the  whole  of  the  unappropriated 
mines  of  Upper  Peru.  The  whole  of  the  unappropriated 
mines  of  Upper  Peru,  gentlemen,  in  one  lot !  Going — go- 
ing—! 

*'A  million  dollars!"  bid  a  syndicate  from  Buenos 
Aires.  ''Twelve  hundred  thousand!"  capped  a  rival. 
''A  million  and  a  half!"  offered  Captain  Andrews,  a 
London  commissioner.  Bolivar,  having  cast  a  wary  eye 
over  the  local  market,  shook  his  head.  He  could  do  bet- 
ter than  that  in  London,  he  believed.  He  named  his  own 
commissioners,  who  should  make  for  the  financial  hub 
of  the  world.  But  they  got  no  farther  than  La  Plata. 
By  that  time  the  news  had  arrived  that  the  London  min- 
ing balloon  had  burst  with  a  most  painful  and  costly 
pop! 

Thus  in  1825  the  South  American  market  knew  its  first 
panic  in  London.  After  the  crisis  the  mining  values  of 
Peru  gradually  found  their  right  levels,  and  a  number  of 
properties  which  had  been  considered  as  sound  were 
found  almost  worthless,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  many 
which  had  been  held  as  of  little  account  provided  with  a 
most  gratifying  surprise  those  people  who  happened  to 
be  financially  interested  in  them  at  the  time  when  they 
consented  to  reveal  the  value  of  their  contents. 

At  this  period  a  great  amount  of  survey  work  was  ac- 
complished by  British  vessels  on  the  South  American 
coast.  It  is,  of  course,  impossible  to  follow  the  details  of 
their  enterprise,  and  a  few  records  of  a  single  expedition 
may  serve  well  enough  to  illustrate  the  rest. 

In  1828  Captain  Henry  Foster  sailed  in  H.M.S.  sloop 
Chanticleer  on  a  scientific  mission  to  the  Southern  At- 
lantic— a  voyage  which  has  been  graphically  described  by 


252     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

the  surgeon  of  the  vessel,  Mr.  W.  H.  B.  Webster.  Ar- 
riving at  Montevideo,  they  found  the  Portuguese  garrison 
besieged  by  the  Gauchos,  and  the  surgeon  on  the  occa- 
sion of  a  landing-party  found  himself  unexpectedly  look- 
ing down  the  muzzle  of  a  carbine  which  a  suspicious 
Gaucho  was  pointing  directly  at  him.  The  man  must 
have  been  a  formidable  person  to  meet,  as,  beyond  his 
carbine,  he  was  provided  with  a  lasso,  a  cutlass,  and  a 
brace  of  pistols!  After  a  conversation  of  signs,  the 
mind  of  the  Gaucho  seems  to  have  been  relieved,  for  he 
made  a  polite  bow,  and  vanished. 

After  this  the  Chanticleer  sailed  down  to  Cape  Horn, 
and  in  the  name  of  King  George  the  Fourth  annexed  some 
territory,  made  friends  with  the  Fuegian  Indians,  and  met 
with  H.M.S.  Adventure,  commanded  by  Captain  King. 
At  a  later  period  of  the  cruise  the  Chanticleer  found  her- 
self off  the  Brazilian  convict  island  of  Fernando  Noronha, 
and  the  officers  bore  testimony  to  the  civility  and  good- 
nature of  the  convicts  who  had  the  free  run  of  the  island. 

The  voyage  ended  in  a  tragedy.  Having  completed 
some  valuable  astronomical  observations  at  Panama,  Cap- 
tain Foster  was  returning  in  a  canoe  to  his  ship.  Pro- 
ceeding down  the  historical  river  Chagres,  he  leaned 
against  an  awning,  which  gave  way,  precipitating  him 
into  the  water.  A  young  officer  and  his  coxswain  in- 
stantly plunged  together  after  him,  but  the  swift  cur- 
rent of  the  stream  had  sucked  the  Captain  beneath,  and 
the  grim  Chagres  Eiver  had  yet  one  more  catastrophe  to 
add  to  its  long  list. 

At  the  time  of  the  Chanticleer's  voyage  science  had  al- 
ready begun  to  play  some  part  in  alleviating  the  fare  of 
the  sailor  and  in  minimizing  the  risk  of  scurvy — a  work 
in  which  Captain  Cook  had  already  shown  such  zeal. 
From  the  modern  point  of  view  progress  was  compara- 
tively insignificant,  as  will  be  evident  from  a  remark  of 
the  Chanticleer's  surgeon:  "It  is  not  very  long  ago  that 
I  was  shewn  in  Sir  Ashton  Lever's  museum  a  piece  of 


FIRST  RELATIONS  WITH  NEW  REPUBLICS     253 

dried  salt-beef ;  the  shreds  of  which  it  was  composed  ex- 
actly resembled  ropeyarn,  and,  having  been  round  the 
world,  it  was  very  properly  treasured  up  as  a  curiosity. ' ' 

One  can  picture  the  shudderings  of  the  advertising 
manager  of  a  present-day  food  extract  on  being  con- 
fronted with  an  uncompromising  description  of  this  kind. 
But  even  at  that  period  it  was  said  to  be  possible  to  cook 
a  joint  of  Donkin's  preserved  meat  in  London  and  to  eat 
it  fresh  at  Cape  Horn.  Sailors  themselves  alleged  that 
it  might  be  taken  right  round  the  world,  and  be  as  good 
as  ever.  This  in  itself  does  not  seem  to  suggest  a  rope- 
yarn  texture.  No  doubt  they  were  easily  satisfied  in 
those  days,  and  the  explanation  lies  in  the  '*as  ever." 

Before  forsaking  the  subject  of  the  sea,  we  may  touch 
on  a  topic,  which  at  first  would  seem  to  have  no  connec- 
tion with  it!  The  term  ''Gringo"  is,  of  course,  applied 
with  impartial  generosity  alike  to  the  European  in  gen- 
eral, or  to  the  North  American.  But  it  was  made  to  apply 
in  the  first  place  more  especially  to  the  Britisher.  It  cor- 
responds more  or  less  with  the  ''rooinek"  of  South  Amer- 
ica, and  has  its  softer  and  friendlier  counterpart  in  the 
*'new  chum"  of  our  own  colonies. 

When  in  Chile,  on  several  occasions  I  heard  the  origin 
explained  of  this  word  of  scanty  compliment.  Accord- 
ing to  my  informants  of  the  Pacific  coast,  it  appears  that 
the  primary  source  of  this  was  the  musical  propensities 
of  a  boat's-crew  of  a  British  ship  anchored  off  a  Chilean 
port.  The  men,  it  appears,  when  pulling  ashore,  across 
the  blue  waves,  trolled  out  the  ballad  ''Green  grow  the 
rushes,  0!"  in  a  lusty  chorus  that  in  part  remained  in 
the  ears  of  some  Chilean  Guazus  who  happened  to  bo 
listening  ashore.  Hence  the  contraction  of  the  first 
words  into  "Gringo." 

I  can  only  give  this  story  as  it  was  told  me  by  Chilean 
and  Englishman  alike.  Unfortunately  there  was  no  date 
attached — which  omission  in  itself  need  not  necessarily 
make  the  tale  improbable ! 


254     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

Senor  Lucio  V.  Mansilla,  however,  in  his  work  on  ' '  Ro- 
zas ' '  maintains  that ' '  Gringo ' '  is  not  an  Americanism,  for 
wanderers  such  as  the  gipsies  were  known  by  this  name 
in  Spain.  Other  foreigners  were  distinguished  by  simi- 
lar nicknames.  Thus  the  Spaniard  was  known  as  the 
Godo,  and  the  Italian  as  the  Carcamdn,  while  the  general 
term  for  a  foreigner  unused  to  the  saddle  was  Mattur- 
rango. 


CHAPTER  Xni 

EAKLY  TRAVELERS  AND  TRADERS  IN  THE  REPUBLICS 

Social  conditions  in  the  new  South  America — The  influence  of  concessions 
— Occupations  followed  by  the  first  British  settlers — Wild  scope  of 
their  energies — Some  early  hotels — Scottish  milkmaids — Varied  circum- 
stances of  the  pioneers — South  America  as  a  Latin  continent — Role 
played  by  the  British — Some  questions  of  shopkeeping — Past  and  pres- 
ent position — The  road  to  Chile — Experiences  of  some  Cornish  miners — 
A  combat  with  a  condor — Travel  in  the  Andes — Isolated  miners — 
Method  of  conveyance  in  the  Colombian  mountains — The  Sillero  and 
his  revenge — Turbulent  priests  at  Mendoza — One  interpretation  of  the 
advantages  derived  from  the  Revolution — The  exchange  of  commodities 
between  Britain  and  South  America — Some  ill-fated  shipments  and  in- 
congruous objects — Origin  of  a  quaint  local  custom — How  a  Scotsman 
vindicated  his  veracity — British  pastoralists  on  South  American  soil — 
The  Indian  peril — Methods  of  attack  employed  by  the  aborigines  of  the 
Pampa — Measures  of  defense — Northern  natives — Ravages  committed  by 
them  during  the  War  of  Independence — Havoc  wrought  in  the  town  of 
Santa  Marta — A  naval  day  ashore — Experiences  of  a  shooting  party — 
The  historical  lake  of  Guatavita — Plans  for  the  securing  of  its  treas- 
ure— The  etory  of  the  Spanish  soldier  and  the  golden  images — A  curi- 
ous Northern  custom — Rough  sport — An  early  nineteenth-century  Co- 
lombian dinner — Christmas  festivities  at  Bogota — Procedure  substi- 
tuted in  1823  for  the  medieval  entertainment — Appearance  of  the 
Northern  traveler — The  sons  of  generals  Miranda  and  Wilson — Cap- 
tain B.  J.  Sullivan — The  river  voyage  of  Lieutenant  W.  Smyth  and 
Mr.  F.  Lowe — Preparations  for  crossing  the  continent  by  stream — 
Departure  at  the  last  moment  from  the  Samarang — Assistance  re- 
ceived from  the  Peruvian  Government  and  the  British  community — 
Start  of  the  expedition — Colonel  Althaus — Major  Beltran  and  Lieuten- 
ant Azcarate — Difficulties  in  connection  with  the  escort — An  alteration 
of  the  route  is  found  necessary — The  Huallaga  River — A  launching 
ceremony — The  native  crews — Aboriginal  humor — Prevalence  of  Brit- 
ish goods — An  advance  agent  of  imagination — The  Ucayali  River — 
Sojourn  at  a  mission  establishment — Leave  taken  from  the  Peruvian 
oflBcers — How  the  lack  of  funds  was  remedied — Incidents  on  the  final 
voyage — Arrival  at  ParS. 

265 


256      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

OWING  to  the  nature  of  its  population  the  tend- 
ency of  South  American  society  has  always 
worked  toward  the  foundation  of  a  small  but  bril- 
liant aristocracy  at  the  head  of  a  disproportionately  large 
untutored  populace.  In  the  south  of  the  continent  the 
important  immigration  from  Europe  has  had  the  effect 
of  supplying  the  republics  of  the  temperate  latitudes  with 
a  bourgeoisie  of  weight  and  influence.  But  in  the  first 
quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century  no  such  body  had  come 
into  existence  in  any  part  of  the  continent. 

It  was  largely  owing  to  a  misconception  of  these  social 
conditions  that  the  policy  of  the  first  British  relations 
with  the  South  Americans  had  very  soon  to  be  amended. 
London  financiers  and  merchants  drew  their  impressions 
of  the  South  American  from  such  personalities  as  Mir- 
anda, Bolivar,  San  Martin,  and  Rivadavia,  and  there  were 
many  who  seemed  to  consider  that  these  extraordinarily 
gifted  men  were  merely  average  specimens  of  South 
American  humanity ! 

The  inevitable  disillusion  followed  expectations  such  as 
these.  Besides  the  honorable  men  of  the  new  republics, 
there  were  those  others — whose  total  absence  from  any 
state  would  automatically  unveil  a  solid  Utopia  ?  And  for 
such  as  these  no  mine  in  the  continent  was  as  profitable 
just  then  as  the  dazzling  field  for  the  nimble-witted  in- 
troduced by  the  British  hunt  after  industrial  concessions ! 
After  this  the  British  commercial  men — like  the  burned 
child  who  forgets  the  pleasant  warmth  of  the  fire  in  the 
pain  of  a  burn — held  aloof  for  a  time,  until  matters  be- 
gan to  adjust  themselves  to  the  actual  and  practical  exist- 
ence of  affairs. 

It  is  clear  enough,  too,  that  those  British  pioneers  who 
first  settled  themselves  in  the  liberated  states  had  not 
gaged  the  depths  of  the  national  forces  of  their  adopted 
lands.  A  study  of  the  occupations  carried  on  by  the  Brit- 
ish for  the  first  few  years  after  independence  had  been 
achieved  is  instructive.    At  this  period  we  find  that  they 


EARLY  TRAVELERS  AND  TRADERS     257 

had  taken  over  almost  every  occupation  and  profession — 
with  an  enthusiasm,  indeed,  that  might  have  applied  to 
our  own  colonies.  That  they  should  have  given  the  initial 
impetus  to  finance  and  wholesale  commerce,  and  that  they 
should  have  embarked  in  agriculture  and  stockbreeding, 
was  inevitable. 

Those  doctors,  too,  who  came  out  to  assist  in  the  war  of 
Liberation,  and  who  remained  to  continue  their  work  in 
the  Southern  Continent  must  have  been  welcome  visitors. 
The  state  of  Spanish  medical  science  at  that  age  may  be 
gaged  from  Richard  Ford's  description  at  an  even  later 
period  of  the  circumstances  of  the  peninsula,  where  *' All 
Spaniards  are  very  dangerous  with  the  knife,  and  more 
particularly  if  surgeons,"  and  where  the  wight  who  falls 
ill  is  especially  unfortunate,  as,  ''whatever  his  original 
complaint,  it  is  too  often  followed  by  secondary  and  worse 
symptoms,  in  the  shape  of  the  native  doctor"! 

That  the  British  doctor  himself  of  the  early  nineteenth 
century  is  evidenced  by  a  letter  of  San  Martin 's,  written 
from  Mendoza,  when  he  was  beginning  to  formulate  his 
plans  for  the  invasion  of  Chile.  In  this  he  remarks  that 
''Doctor  William  Colisberry,  who  also  attended  me  in  my 
illness  at  Tucuman,  assures  me  that  I  have  not  six  months 
to  live" — a  prognostication  which,  had  it  been  fulfilled, 
must  have  altered  the  whole  course  of  South  American 
history ! 

But  the  energies  of  the  British  extended  far  beyond 
such  professions  as  this.  We  find  them  as  hotel,  eating- 
house,  and  reading-room  proprietors.  They  are  seen  as 
laundry-folk,  market-gardeners,  shop-keepers,  artisans, 
and  coachmen.  They  founded  periodicals  in  Spanish  as 
well  as  in  English,  and  they  frequently  served  as  the 
crews  of  the  river  schooners. 

We  know  that  at  Montevideo  as  early  as  the  1820 's,  a 
"respectable  ordinary"  was  kept  by  a  Mr.  Caulfield,  at 
which  most  of  the  English  and  American  merchants 
boarded.    At  that  time  no  doubt  beef  was  the  most  pop- 


258      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

ular  meat  in  that  establishment,  for  Mr.  W.  H.  B.  "Web- 
ster, the  surgeon  of  H.M.  sloop  Chanticleer,  relates  that 
the  price  of  the  finest  beef  in  the  town  was  Id.  per  lb., 
though  8d.  per  lb.  was  demanded  for  very  indifferent 
mutton. 

At  this  period,  too,  an  Englishman  kept  a  hotel  at 
Santiago  in  Chile,  which  was  frequently  crowded  to  over- 
flowing by  the  Cornish  miners  and  others  who  arrived  in 
such  numbers  when  the  first  short  mining  boom  of  this 
part  of  the  Pacific  coast  was  at  its  height. 

Scarcely,  moreover,  were  the  Spaniards  driven  from 
Lima — and  before  they  were  expelled  from  the  neighbor- 
ing part  of  Callao — ^when  one  reads  of  Walker's  hotel, 
near  the  Church  of  San  Agustin,  in  the  Capital  of  Peru,  as 
well  as  of  Oliver's  hotel  in  the  same  town.  In  this  last 
building,  by  the  way,  a  British  naval  chaplain  has  placed 
it  on  record  that  he  married  one  of  the  first  English 
couples  to  undergo  that  ceremony  in  Spanish  South  Amer- 
ica. Undoubtedly  there  was  more  love  than  learning  in 
the  match,  for  each  of  the  couple  had  perforce  to  be  con- 
tent with  making  a  humble  mark  in  place  of  a  signature. 
Nevertheless,  that  is  no  reason  why  their  descendants — 
the  name  of  the  original  couple  not  being  given — should 
not  be  millionaires  to-day! 

This  particular  occupation  was  well  enough,  but  so  en- 
thusiastic was  the  general  enterprise  that  in  1820  a  colony 
of  Scottish  milkmaids  was  introduced  into  Buenos  Aires 
in  order  that  the  luxury  of  butter  should  abound  at  that 
place.  Despite  many  set-backs,  owing  to  the  wild  state 
of  the  cows,  the  Scottish  lassies  eventually  succeeded  in 
producing  much  butter — only  to  discover  that  the  con- 
temporary local  preference  for  oil  remained  perfectly 
unshaken ! 

Many  of  these  experiments,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  were 
persisted  in,  in  spite  of  the  warnings  of  many  who  real- 
ized the  futility  of  round  pegs  in  square  holes.  Several 
contemporary  writers  urged  with  considerable  reason  that 


EARLY  TRAVELERS  AND  TRADERS     259 

South  America  of  the  early  nineteenth  century  was  no 
place  for  the  British  working  man  or  small  tradesman, 
nor  would  be  until  some  generations  had  passed  away. 
Many  returned  home  to  resume  their  lives  in  more  settled 
surroundings,  and  to  feast  their  eyes  upon  a  sight  for 
which  a  Cornish  mine  captain  in  the  midst  of  the  Andes 
once  expressed  his  longing:  ''Them  things  that  do  wear 
caps  and  aprons!" 

Yet,  curiously  enough,  of  those  who  decided  to  stay  on 
and  to  risk  all  an  astonishingly  large  proportion  made 
their  fortunes.  How  many  British  have  there  not  been 
in  South  America  who  spoke  English  like  a  peasant  and 
Spanish  like  a  foreign  lord !  Men  who  o^vned  their  many 
square  leagues  and  the  allegiance  of  scores  of  retainers, 
whose  services  they  received  with  the  dignified  Spanish 
calm  that  had  become  their  second  nature. 

But  in  gaining  all  this  they  had  lost  their  birthright — 
a  possibility  which  none  of  them  had  foreseen  when  they 
first  set  foot  in  the  Southern  continent.  The  process  was 
gradual  and  imperceptible,  and  its  conclusion  invariably 
saw  the  man  a  devoted  citizen  of  the  republic  whose  soil 
he  now  claimed  as  his  own.  As  for  sons  and  grandsons, 
every  breath  that  they  drew  was  Latin,  and  very  rightly 
Latin — although  I  fear  that  in  one  or  two  instances  the 
preference  was  accentuated  by  an  uneasy  consciousness 
of  their  ancestor's  modest  social  position  in  Europe; 
which  is  a  pity,  seeing  that  this-  latter  was  usually  a  very 
fine  fellow.  It  was  here,  of  course,  that  the  secret  lay — 
the  key  to  the  situation  which  had  not  been  grasped  by  any 
Anglo-Saxon  foreigner  in  the  early  ages  of  the  era  of  in- 
dependence. South  America,  being  essentially  a  Latin 
continent,  had  to  develop  on  Latin  lines.  There  are  more 
roads  than  one  to  a  state  of  advanced  civilization.  The 
Englishman,  when  he  beckons,  makes  an  upward  gesture ; 
the  Iberian  curves  his  fingers  in  the  oriental  downward 
sweep :  but  the  result  is  the  same. 

When  it  had  become  plain  enough  that  these  new  states 


260     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

did  not  intend  to  adopt  the  Anglo-Saxon  ideals,  it  must  be 
put  to  the  credit  of  the  British  that  they  realized  the  ap- 
propriateness of  the  choice,  and  set  themselves  content- 
edly enough  to  fill  those  particular  roles  which  the  exigen- 
cies of  industries,  politics,  and  temperament  allotted  to 
them. 

Thus  in  course  of  time  the  number  of  British  shop- 
keepers, officials  in  the  pay  of  the  republics,  and  other 
persons  whose  occupations  became  more  or  less  super- 
fluous, diminished  while  on  the  other  hand,  the  demands  of 
finance,  transport,  wholesale  commerce,  and  the  land  at- 
tracted an  ever-increasing  flow  of  men  of  this  nationality. 

Indeed,  the  respective  situations  of  the  British  shop- 
keepers in  South  America  of  a  hundred  years  ago  and  of 
to-day  are  worthy  of  a  rapid  interlude.  It  may  be  that 
one  of  the  chief  errors  of  those  worthy  retail  adventurers 
who  sallied  out  to  the  Southern  ports  at  the  beginning  of 
the  nineteenth  century  was  that  their  enterprise  was  be- 
fore its  time — for  now  that  the  Southern  republics  have  at 
length,  after  the  countless  vicissitudes  inseparable  from 
the  process  of  such  a  consummation,  taken  their  proper 
place  among  the  great  nations  of  the  world,  have  not  such 
vast  organizations  as  Harrods,  Maples,  Mappins,  and 
other  establishments  that  can  only  exist  in  company  with 
a  high  state  of  civilization  and  many  dollars,  now  planted 
themselves  in  the  soil  of  the  new  lands,  attracted  there  as 
irresistibly  as  an  asbestos  moth  would  be  to  a  nourishing 
flame  ! 

But  we  have  advanced  a  century  beyond  the  openings  of 
British  trade  with  South  America.  In  the  early  nine- 
teenth century  one  of  the  first  spots  to  attract  the  British 
in  any  numbers  was  Central  Chile.  This  was  mainly  on 
account  of  the  mining  ventures  which  have  already  been 
alluded  to.  But  at  that  period  the  experiences  on  the  road 
to  Chile  were  as  varied  and  as  rough  as  even  the  most  en-, 
thusiastic  traveler  in  search  of  local  color  could  have  de- 
sired ! 


EARLY  TRAVELERS  AND  TRADERS     261 

Owing  to  their  complete  mastery  of  their  craft,  it  has 
been  the  lot  of  Cornish  miners  to  travel  in  many  parts  of 
the  world.  But  they  can  have  known  few  stranger  jour- 
neys than  that  across  the  dusty  summer  grasses  of  the 
Argentine  Campo.  As  the  coaches,  bound  and  strength- 
ened with  rawhide  from  wheel  to  roof,  sped  across  the 
alluvial  plains,  the  men  who  came  from  the  long  narrow 
streets  of  whitewashed  Cornish  cottages  must  have  won- 
dered at  much  that  they  saw.  As  for  their  grim  guardian 
angels  of  Gauchos,  who  galloped  tirelessly  by  the  side  of 
the  coaches,  and  who  regarded  with  amazed  contempt 
these  strange  creatures  from  abroad  who  possessed  two 
legs,  and  who  yet  did  not  know  how  to  sit  a  horse — they 
and  their  families  at  the  fortified  post-houses  were  not  the 
least  curious  of  the  many  new  sights  the  miners  saw. 
Captain  Head  relates  the  remark  of  one  of  them,  as  they 
went  from  east  to  west: 

''They  be  so  wild  as  the  donkey,"  said  one  of  the  Cor- 
nish party,  smiling;  he  then  very  gravely  added,  ''And 
there  be  one  thing,  sir,  that  I  do  observe,  which  is,  that 
the  farther  we  do  go,  the  wilder  things  do  get ! ' ' 

It  was  this  Cornishman,  or  another  of  his  party,  who 
some  time  later,  when  in  the  Andes,  rode  up  to  a  condor 
who  had  gorged  himself  to  such  a  degree  on  the  carcass 
of  a  horse  that  he  was  unable  to  flap  his  heavy  body  away. 
Determined  that  he  would  break  a  spear  with  so  unusual 
an  antagonist  as  a  condor,  the  miner  descended  from  his 
horse,  and  closed  with  the  gigantic  bird. 

"No  two  animals  can  well  be  imagined  less  likely  to 
meet  than  a  Cornish  miner  and  a  condor,"  observes  Head, 
' '  and  few  could  have  calculated,  a  year  ago,  when  the  one 
was  hovering  high  upon  the  snowy  pinnacles  of  the  Cor- 
dillera, and  the  other  many  fathoms  beneath  the  surface 
of  the  ground  in  Cornwall,  that  they  would  ever  meet  to 
wrestle  and  'hug'  upon  the  wide  desert  plain  of  Villa- 
Vicencia. ' ' 

It  was  a  case  of  St.  David  and  the  Condor,  and  after  a 


262      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

tremendous  struggle  victory  rested  with  the  man  from 
the  land  of  leeks,  who  triumphantly  bore  away  some  of 
the  great  carrion  bird's  wing  feathers  as  trophies  of  the 
day! 

The  accounts  of  these  early  crossings  of  the  Cordilleras, 
which  are  fairly  numerous,  dovetail  their  various  facts, 
the  one  with  another,  in  a  most  interesting  fashion.  We 
have  a  relation,  for  instance,  by  one  of  the  first  English- 
men to  pass  the  Andes  of  the  accouchement  of  his  wife  in 
the  bleak  and  terrific  upper-world  of  peaks,  chasms,  snow, 
and  condors — one  of  the  most  trying  experiences,  not  only 
for  the  wife  but  for  the  party,  which  can  possibly  be  con- 
ceived. In  a  later  book  another  traveler  tells  how  he 
met  an  English  lady  traveling  with  a  young  family  among 
the  Andes  heights.  Her  eldest — a  boy  of  seven,  who  had 
ridden  the  whole  way — was  the  actual  child  who  had  first 
seen  the  light  in  that  wild  spot.  He  was  certainly  the 
first  Englishman — I  do  not  know  if  there  has  been  a 
second — born  in  the  shadow  of  Aconcagua ! 

Numbers  of  the  Cornish  miners  were  occupied  in  the 
Venezuelan  mines,  of  which  so  much  was  hoped  at  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century.  At  one  of  these, 
the  Quebrado  Mine,  no  fewer  than  three  hundred  British 
miners  and  laborers,  and  artisans  were  employed. 

There  would  seem  to  be  very  few  of  the  mountainous 
mineral  nooks  of  South  America  into  which  these  Cornish 
miners  have  not  penetrated  at  some  time  or  two.  An  epi- 
sode in  support  of  this  is  related  by  Mr.  H.  C.  Ross 
Johnson  at  a  much  later  date.  Writing  in  1868,  he 
tells  how,  when  traveling  in  the  very  remote  Argentine 
province  of  Catamarca,  he  quite  unexpectedly  came 
across  a  Cornish  mine  captain  and  six  Cornish  foremen 
miners. 

They  had  been  engaged  for  four  years,  at  a  temptingly 
high  rate  of  pay.  Their  lives  must  have  been  monoto- 
nous in  the  extreme ;  for  since  the  date  of  their  arrival  at 
the  spot,  three  years  before  Mr.  Ross  Johnson  met  with 


EARLY  TRAVELERS  AND  TRADERS     263 

them,  they  had  not  been  five  miles  from  the  lonely  moun- 
tain mine  in  which  they  worked ! 

Although  many  of  the  early  British  travelers  suffered 
dangers  and  hardship  in  the  passage  of  the  Argentine- 
Chilean  Andes,  they  were  at  all  events  spared  a  sensa- 
tion which  is  related  with  considerable  emphasis  by  more 
than  one  Englishman  who  penetrated  into  the  Colombian 
mountains.  These  were  apt  to  be  carried  in  a  chair 
strapped  to  the  back  of  a  powerful  native  mountaineer, 
known  as  a  sillero.  The  experience  of  these  travelers  as 
they  sat  like  portmanteaus  on  the  backs  of  the  moun- 
taineers panting  across  precipices  of  a  sickening  depth 
could  have  been  no  enviable  one. 

It  is  related  that  in  the  course  of  the  War  of  Independ- 
ence a  Spanish  officer,  who  was  being  carried  in  this  way, 
caused  himself  no  little  brutal  amusement  by  digging  his 
spurs  into  the  unfortunate  sillero,  until  the  man,  goaded 
to  desperation,  jerked  him  from  the  chair  into  the  depths 
of  a  tremendous  abyss,  after  which  the  sillero  fled  into  the 
wilds  for  refuge. 

It  was  natural  enough,  owing  to  the  confusion  attending 
the  replacing  of  one  rule  by  another,  that  the  lesser  events 
should  be  described  by  the  British  spectators  rather  than 
by  the  distraught  local  actors.  It  is  to  these  British  trav- 
elers that  we  are  indebted  for  much  of  the  local  color  of 
the  first  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century.  It  is  they  who 
have  described  the  decay  in  the  authority  of  those  priests 
who,  disgracing  their  cloth,  crowded  into  the  cock-pits, 
each  with  his  fighting  cock  under  his  arm.  It  is  they,  too, 
who  have  told  us  how  a  number  of  the  most  ignorant  of 
these  priests,  bitterly  resenting  the  freedom  accorded  to 
the  British  in  Mendoza,  managed  for  a  time  to  secure  the 
governor  of  that  province  when  he  was  in  bed.  After 
this,  taking  advantage  of  the  lapse  of  lay  authority,  they 
burned  in  the  public  plaza  a  copy  of  the  Constitution  of 
the  new  and  objectionably  tolerant  republic ! 

But  such  reactionary  spasms  were  fleeting.     The  popu- 


264     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

lace  on  the  whole  was  not  slow  in  appreciating  the  ma- 
terial and  moral  benefits  derived  from  the  revolution,  al- 
though these  were  sometimes  judged  in  a  sufficiently  crude 
manner. 

A  British  officer  who  traveled  over  large  stretches  of 
the  north  of  the  continent  just  after  the  conclusion  of  the 
War  of  Independence  used  to  ask  many  of  the  people  with 
whom  he  came  into  contact  what  was  the  chief  benefit  they 
had  derived  from  the  revolution.  He  relates  that  the 
answer  was  invariably  the  same,  *'I  can  now  procure 
English  goods  at  one  third  of  the  price  at  which  they 
could  be  purchased  during  the  dominion  of  the  Span- 
iards.'* From  which  it  appears  that  the  highest  affairs 
of  state  can  have  the  most  homely  significance ! 

The  method  by  which  British  trade  was  opened  with 
the  Pacific  coast  of  South  America  was  simple  enough. 
Goods  suitable  for  the  Chilean  market  were  consigned 
from  London  or  Calcutta  to  agents  in  Valparaiso  or  San- 
tiago. The  payment  for  these  might  be  made  in  the  or- 
dinary way  by  bills  or  specie.  Another  method  of  liqui- 
dating the  amounts  of  these  imported  goods  was  by  the 
shipment  of  copper  in  return.  In  this  way  a  British  ves- 
sel would  discharge  her  cargo  at  Valparaiso  and  would 
proceed  to  Coquimbo  in  the  North  to  fill  up  with  copper, 
the  shipment  of  which  had  been  arranged  for  by  the  mer- 
chants in  Valparaiso  or  Santiago  who  had  purchased  the 
European  or  Indian  goods. 

A  similar  exchange  of  commodities  developed  through- 
out the  continent.  Buenos  Aires  and  Montevideo  sent 
horns,  hides,  tallow,  and  other  products  of  a  pastoral 
country.  Brazil  sent  coffee  and  sugar ;  Peru  and  Bolivia 
sent  their  minerals  and  drugs,  and  in  fact  every  one  of 
the  new  states  contributed  according  to  its  capabilities — 
which  depended  largely  on  the  industry  of  its  people  and 
the  political  tranquillity  of  the  state. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  importation  of  the  machinery 
and  goods,  which  had  been  so  sternly  shut  out  by  the 


EARLY  TRAVELERS  AND  TRADERS     265 

Spanish  laws  of  the  Indies  rapidly  had  its  effect  on  the 
industries  of  the  continent  and  helped  to  change  the  face 
of  many  a  landscape.  That  there  were  instances  of  over- 
enthusiasm  and  want  of  judgment  goes  without  saying. 
Melancholy  traces  of  these  were  left  in  such  objects  as 
massive  pieces  of  mining  machinery  stranded  in  some 
lofty  and  difficult  pass  of  the  Andes.  Occasionally,  too, 
the  geographical  conditions  of  the  various  districts  were 
misunderstood — as  when  skates  were  sent  to  tropical 
Brazil ! 

It  must  be  admitted  that  the  finish  of  much  of  the  early 
nineteenth  century  ware  sent  from  England  to  South 
America  was  entirely  inappropriate  to  its  surroundings. 
Walsh,  for  instance,  relates  that  at  a  supper  in  a  balcony 
of  the  glowing  uplands  of  Brazil,  a  rather  mystic  enter- 
tainment— doubtless  illuminated  by  fire-flies — at  which 
six  young  female  slaves,  robed  in  white,  attended,  the 
Staffordshire  Punch- jug  bore  upon  its  honest  face  the 
blunt  legend,  ' '  To  all  good  fellows. ' ' 

No  doubt,  too.  Captain  Head,  resting  in  a  hut  in  a  re- 
mote corner  of  the  then  wild  Pampa,  and  watching  the 
onslaught  of  a  cloud  of  locusts  on  his  belongings,  took 
some  comfort  from  the  assurance  that  ornamented  a  mug 
in  the  rancho: 

"No  power  on  earth 
Can  make  us  rue, 
If  England  to  her- 
Self  proves  true." 

The  meetings  which  had  occurred  from  the  dawn  of 
South  American  history  between  the  upper  classes  of  the 
Anglo-Saxons  and  of  the  Iberians  had  been  facilitated  by 
the  knowledge,  tastes,  and  inclinations  which  they  pos- 
sessed in  common.  But  when,  with  the  increased  oppor- 
tunities of  travel,  the  lower  orders  of  the  British  con- 
trived to  penetrate  into  the  continent,  their  collision  with 
the  humbler  South  Americans  could  not  well  fail  to  be 


266     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

productive  of  a  good  deal  of  misunderstanding  and  mu- 
tual wonder. 

Such  as  these,  of  course,  possessed  in  the  first  instance 
scant  opportunity  of  studying  the  life  of  the  better-class 
South  Americans,  or  of  being  struck  with  some  of  the 
curious  customs  which  the  more  cultured  travelers  re- 
marked. One  of  these  habits,  though  trivial  enough,  was 
quaint.  This  was  the  friendly  flipping  of  bread  pellets  at 
meals,  which,  in  the  second  decade  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, appears  to  have  been  indulged  in  with  an  enthusiasm 
that,  having  peppered  the  persons  of  all  the  guests,  left 
the  floor  littered  with  the  bread  missiles.  This  was  looked 
upon  as  a  very  curious  and  notable  South  American  habit, 
until  it  was  discovered  that  the  custom  had  been  intro- 
duced a  few  years  before  by  some  rather  rowdy  young 
Englishmen!  But  nowhere  else,  apparently,  had  these 
banqueting  battles  been  taken  up  so  whole-heartedly  since 
they  flourished  in  London  in  the  days  of  James  II! 

Of  the  more  humble  immigrants  they  were  enterprising 
folk,  those  who  plunged  into  the  midst  of  a  people,  whose 
language  they  did  not  understand,  and  whose  customs 
they  had  to  pick  up  as  best  they  could.  Yet  there  were 
many  who  set  out  in  this  way,  single-handed,  and  who 
carved  a  career  for  themselves,  notwithstanding  the  dis- 
advantage of  having  to  slash  first  of  all  in  the  dark !  But 
the  drawbacks  of  this  racial  solitude  must  have  been 
heavy. 

In  such  circumstances  traveler's  tales  are  apt  to  be 
double-edged.  Many  an  itinerant  expounder  has  flattered 
himself  that  he  has  been  dispensing  useful  information, 
when  all  that  he  has  taught  his  hearers  is  the  conviction 
that  he  himself  is  a  liar!  Something  of  this  kind  hap- 
pened to  an  old  Scotsman  who  had  long  been  settled  in 
Corrientes  when  the  first  British  war  steamer  to  ascend 
the  Parana  River  halted  at  that  subtropical  port.  Many 
years  before  in  an  incautious  and  expansive  moment  he 
had  told  the  Corrientinos  of  English  coal — of  the  black 


EARLY  TRAVELERS  AND  TRADERS     267 

stones  that  would  burn  and  blaze.  As  a  result,  his  repu- 
tation for  veracity  had  shrunk  thinner  than  the  legs  of 
the  herons  on  the  Parana.  But  when  the  black  diamonds, 
nestling  in  their  bunkers  under  the  white  ensign  actually 
came  up  the  river,  his  opportunity  arrived  with  them. 
He  boarded  the  vessel,  secured  some  lumps  of  coal,  took 
them  ashore,  piled  and  lit  them,  and,  watched  the  flames 
burn  away  the  doubt  of  many  years  from  the  faces  of  his 
apologetic,  excited,  and  gratified  friends.  This  story  is, 
I  believe,  absolutely  true. 

Later,  when  the  pastoral  value  of  the  Southern  half  of 
the  continent  became  evident,  arrived  young  men  of  the 
type  of  those  who  proceed  to  our  own  colonies.  With 
them  arrived  cleaner  stallions,  straighter-backed  bulls, 
and  meatier  and  woolier  rams. 

Very  soon  these  British  newcomers  made  themselves 
at  home  to  an  extent  in  which  none  of  their  predecessors 
had  succeeded.  They  fraternized  with  South  American 
landowner  and  with  Gaucho  alike,  and  a  mutual  respect 
was  rapidly  established.  The  Englishman,  for  his  part, 
became  attached  to  these  immense  plains  of  alluvial  soil 
in  a  fashion  that  is  seldom  seen  outside  the  bounds  of 
his  own  empire.  In  the  early  days — and  until  the  middle 
of  the  nineteenth  century — he  had  not  only  hardships  to 
contend  with,  but  the  Indian  peril  as  well. 

South  America  lacks  a  Fenimore  Cooper,  which  is  re- 
grettable, having  regard  to  the  wild  scenes  conjured  up 
by  the  Indians  of  the  Southern  pastures  of  the  continent. 
In  many  respects  these  resembled  the  redskins  of  North 
America.  Their  war-whoop  was  similar,  but  rendered 
yet  more  barbaric  by  striking  the  yelling  lips  with  the 
hand,  thus  breaking  up  the  sound.  Their  lances  were 
of  a  prodigious  length,  and  their  horsemanship  was  such 
that  entire  companies  of  them  would  sweep  to  the  attack, 
and  present  the  appearance  of  mere  riderless  horses,  the 
dusky  warriors  clinging  out  of  sight  beneath  the  bellies 
of  their  mounts.     At  other  times  they  would  play  such 


268     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

circus-like  tricks  as  that  of  standing  upright  on  the  backs 
of  their  galloping  horses. 

A  number  of  the  British  pioneers  lost  their  lives  at  the 
hands  of  these  savages,  and  many  a  British-owned  home- 
stead went  smoking  up  to  the  skies  after  their  raids.  A 
fairly  effectual  method  of  defense  was  that  of  digging  a 
deep  and  wide  ditch  round  a  threatened  estancia  house. 
Bred  in  the  unbroken  level  of  the  Pampa,  the  Indian 
horses  had  never  acquired  the  art  of  leaping,  and  the 
rifles  of  half  a  dozen  resolute  men  stationed  behind  a 
sufficiently  important  ditch  frequently  sent  hundreds  of 
marauding  Indians  to  the  rightabout,  for  the  Pampa  war- 
rior, afoot,  somewhat  resembled  a  non-swimmer  in  the 
sea,  and  had  no  stomach  left  for  fight  or  play ! 

In  the  forest  and  mountain  country  of  the  north  of  the 
continent  the  aborigines  were,  of  course,  of  quite  another 
type.  Here,  although  there  is  no  record  of  any  aggression 
on  a  national  scale,  the  Indians  appear  to  have  broken  out 
into  lawlessness  on  one  or  two  occasions  as  the  northern 
War  of  Liberation  was  drawing  to  a  close.  Sometimes 
their  ravages  were  sufficiently  serious.  Captain  Coch- 
rane, who  in  1823  visited  Santa  Marta,  an  important  town 
in  Colombia,  found  that  it  had  quite  recently  been  occu- 
pied for  three  weeks  by  insurgent  Indians,  who  had  cre- 
ated enormous  damage,  with  the  result  that  the  popula- 
tion of  the  place  had  been  reduced  from  eight  thousand 
to  a  few  hundreds,  and  that  the  commerce  of  the  city 
had  been  completely  destroyed  for  the  time  being.  "I 
dined,"  says  Captain  Cochrane,  ''with  Mr.  Fairbank,  the 
principal  merchant  of  the  place,  from  whom  I  heard  many 
particulars  of  the  ravages  committed  by  the  Indians,  the 
traces  of  which  I  beheld  in  half-destroyed  doors,  wain- 
scots and  beams,  and  felt  in  the  total  want  of  most  of  the 
usual  accommodations  of  civilized  life.  Those  marauders 
had  drunk  all  the  spirits  in  his  cellars;  but  his  vin  de 
Bordeaux  and  champagne  being  too  delicate  for  their  un- 
sophisticated palates,  they  had  amused  themselves  by 


EARLY  TRAVELERS  AND  TRADERS  269 

smashing  a  portion  of  the  bottles  to  atoms,  and  with  the 
remainder  of  the  wine,  on  account  of  the  scarcity  of  water, 
they  had  boiled  their  meat  in  large  kettles  suspended  over 
bonfires  made  of  the  furniture  of  the  proprietors,  before 
the  doors  of  their  houses." 

Surely  the  only  comment  possible  is  that  these  were 
very  liquid  pearls,  and  very  dusky  swine ! 

In  such  troublous  times  the  British  consulates  have 
often  proved  havens  of  refuge,  and  have  occasionally 
served  as  storehouses.  William  Bollaert,  for  instance, 
writing  in  1860,  says  that  one  of  the  most  interesting 
sights  of  Panama  was  the  patio,  or  courtyard,  of  the  Brit- 
ish consulate,  piled  up  with  bars  of  silver  from  Peru  and 
Chile,  on  their  way  across  the  Isthmus. 

Captain  Cochrane  has  been  quoted  more  than  once  in 
these  pages,  but  I  must  refer  to  him  just  once  again,  and 
at  some  length,  in  order  to  show  the  pleasant  breeziness 
of  some  naval  men's  day  ashore  near  Cartagena. 

**0n  the  8th,"  says  Captain  Cochrane,  **Mr.  Eennie, 
Mr.  Isaacs,  Mr.  Miers,  and  myself,  made  a  picnic  shooting 
• — party  with  the  officers  of  the  Isis.  We  slept  on  board 
the  frigate  the  evening  before,  and  started  at  daylight 
next  morning,  having  taken  a  hasty  breakfast  previously ; 
and  landing  at  Senor  Lazaro  de  Herrera's  estate,  we 
divided  into  parties,  and  commenced  operations.  At  nine 
o'clock  we  all  assembled  to  a  second  breakfast,  with  a  very 
motley  show  of  game,  the  best  being  three  quails,  shot  by 
my  companion  Mr.  Rennie,  and  myself.  .  .  .  After  our 
breakfast,  which  was  infinitely  better  than  our  sport, 
we  turned  into  our  hammocks,  and  slept  until  one  o  'clock, 
when  Mr.  Rennie  succeeded  most  effectually  in  dispelling 
sleep  by  a  series  of  practical  jokes.  He  placed  a  small 
donkey,  as  a  bedfellow,  beside  Mr.  Miers,  who  was  aroused 
by  the  ungentle  caresses  of  the  animal ;  which,  displeased 
at  its  novel  situation,  began  to  kick,  and  awoke  Mr.  Miers 
from  his  gentle  slumber,  amidst  the  laughter  of  all  his 
companions,  who  did  not  fail  to  make  a  few  jokes  on  the 


270     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

occasion,  which  were  received  with  much  good  temper. 
Mr.  Rennie's  next  feat  was  to  awaken  Mr.  Isaacs,  which 
he  did  most  completely,  by  shooting  a  pigeon  which  was 
roasting  (roosting?)  over  that  gentleman's  hammock. 
We  now  all  rose,  finding  that  no  chance  of  being  allowed 
to  repose  any  longer  was  left  us.  I  bought  all  the  pigeons 
I  could  procure,  and  proposed  a  pigeon-match  for  the 
amusement  of  the  party.  This  was  acceded  to :  and,  after 
a  general  competition  of  skill,  it  was  decided  in  favor  of 
the  first  lieutenant  of  the  Isis,  as  the  best  shot.  At  two, 
we  sat  down  to  dinner,  being  joined  by  Captain  Forrest ; 
and  in  the  cool  of  the  afternoon  we  again  started  in  search 
of  game.  I  saw  a  great  many  large  snipes,  but  could  not 
kill  any.  Returning  homewards,  my  guide  led  me  to  a 
spot  which  was  sometimes  the  resort  of  wild-deer;  at 
the  moment,  fortunately  for  me,  one  was  grazing  there, 
which  I  killed  with  buck-shot,  hitting  her  in  the  neck.  I 
carried  her  down  in  triumph,  and  was  allowed  by  general 
acclamation  to  be  the  most  fortunate  man  of  the  day. 
The  principal  spoil  of  the  rest  of  the  party  consisted  of 
Muscovy  ducks,  tame  cocks,  barn-door  fowls,  etc.,  which 
they  had  shot,  because  they  could  procure  no  sport  in 
the  field,  and  therefore  took  their  revenge  on  the  domestic 
poultry.  Everything  was  however  paid  for,  and  the  cot- 
tagers requested  us  to  return  and  visit  them  again  at 
some  future  period.  We  then  embarked;  and,  on  reach- 
ing the  ship,  sat  down  to  a  good  supper  in  the  gun-room  of 
the  Isis,  where  we  canvassed  our  exploits,  and  determined 
a  day  of  pleasure  and  conviviality." 

Could  any  episodes  have  been  more  refreshing  to  the 
war-worn  and  rather  tragic  soil  of  Cartagena  ? 

These  other  episodes  connected  with  the  north  of  the 
continent  have  at  least  the  added  merit  of  local  color.  It 
is  probable  enough  that  a  certain  amount  of  the  legend 
of  Manoa  and  its  wonderful  waters  was  founded  on  the 
Colombian  mountain  lake  of  Guatavita,  a  spot  which  had 
been  held  very  sacred  by  the  Indians  before  the  advent  of 


EARLY  TRAVELERS  AND  TRADERS     271 

the  Spaniards.  Here  twice  a  year,  the  Cacique  of  the 
tribe  would  be  paddled  to  the  middle  of  the  lake,  and 
among  the  other  ceremonies  which  took  place  his  body 
was  powdered  with  gold  dust,  after  which  he  plunged 
into  the  water. 

This  lake  was  inspected  with  some  curiosity  by  the 
first  British  travelers  in  that  region,  with  the  idea  of 
draining  off  its  waters,  and  thus  securing  the  enormous 
amount  of  treasure  which,  it  was  reputed,  lay  at  the  bot- 
tom of  the  lake.  No  steps  of  this  kind  appear  actually  to 
have  been  taken  at  the  time.  The  travelers,  however, 
were  shown  the  sepulchers  of  two  of  the  ancient  Caciques, 
and  also  a  cave  in  the  rock,  which  was  said  to  have  been 
connected  with  this  worship,  and  its  entrance  to  have 
been  guarded  by  two  life-size  figures  of  gold.  It  was  re- 
lated that  a  Spanish  soldier,  having  lit  by  accident  on 
the  spot,  had  got  the  length  of  cutting  off  a  golden  finger, 
when  he  was  attacked  by  the  Indians,  and,  bleeding  from 
his  wounds,  only  escaped  with  the  greatest  diflSculty. 
When  he  returned  with  a  strong  party  to  the  spot,  the 
golden  figures  had  vanished,  having  probably  been  flung 
into  the  lake. 

It  is  possible,  of  course,  that  this  story  is  as  flimsy  as 
that  of  Manoa  itself.  On  the  other  hand,  it  seems  to 
contain  nothing  that  is  essentially  improbable. 

Of  the  many  bizarre  customs  of  the  north  of  the  con- 
tinent the  following  one  witnessed  by  an  Englishman 
was  certainly  not  the  least  strange.  That  it  afforded  a 
sufficiently  rough  sport  will  be  gathered  from  his  account : 

*'In  the  evening,  attended  high  mass;  and  afterwards 
witnessed  an  imitation  of  bull-fighting,  in  the  front  of 
the  church.  A  man,  the  tallest  and  most  powerful  in  the 
place,  was  selected,  on  whom  was  fixed,  and  well  secured, 
a  large  ox-hide,  with  enormous  horns,  hollowed  and  filled 
with  brimstone  and  other  combustible  materials;  a  pair 
of  eyes,  and  large  and  round  as  a  saucer,  and  a  tail  of 
most  tremendous  length.     The  moon  had  not  risen,  and 


272     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

the  night  was  dark,  when  the  burning  composition  in 
the  horns  was  ignited,  and  the  sport  commenced.  The 
fiery  bull  attacked  all  the  assembled  world — such  shriek- 
ing, such  running,  such  scampering ;  all  was  confusion  and 
uproar!  Some  bolder  than  the  others  faced  the  blazing 
bull,  held  up  roanas  before  him,  and  shook  flags  in  front 
of  the  flaming  horns;  some  dexterously  avoided  the 
thrusts  made  at  them ;  others,  less  fortunate,  were  falling 
beneath  the  force  of  the  furious  animal,  who  would  fre- 
quently have  set  fire  to  his  prostrate  antagonist,  but  for 
the  friendly  interference  of  some  companion,  who  would 
on  such  an  occasion  seize  the  bull  by  his  convenient  length 
of  tail,  and  swing  him  round  from  his  fallen  foe,  before 
he  could  satiate  his  revenge." 

The  following  note,  too,  will  give  an  idea  of  an  early 
nineteenth  century  Colombian  dinner : 

*'The  first  course  consisted  of  soups,  fish,  roast  and 
stewed  meats,  poultry,  etc;  likewise  numerous  made 
dishes,  interspersed  with  vegetables,  olives,  melons,  etc; 
until  not  an  inch  remained  to  put  another  dish  on;  the 
table  actually  groaning  under  the  weight  of  eatables. 
This  is  the  principal  course,  and  takes  up  a  considerable 
time.  The  soups  are  removed  the  moment  they  are  done 
with,  and  large  made-dishes  of  meat  placed  in  their  room. 
A  bottle  of  wine,  generally  vin  de  Bordeaux,  is  placed  to 
every  person,  with  a  decanter  of  water,  wine-glass,  and 
tumbler;  and  white  wine  is  distributed  here  and  there 
about  the  table ;  every  one  drinks  when  he  likes,  which  I 
think  is  much  better  than  our  English  custom,  which  may 
force  a  man  who  is  eating  curry  to  drink  Madeira.  After 
it  is  seen  that  every  one  declines  eating  more  of  the  course 
on  the  table,  champagne  is  handed  round,  and  then  a  gen- 
eral rising  takes  place ;  you  adjourn  to  another  room,  or 
walk  about  the  garden,  until  the  table  is  cleared,  and  the 
second,  or  dessert,  course  is  arranged.  This  move  is  cer- 
tainly agreeable  at  so  large  a  party,  and  you  return  with 
renewed  appetite,  to  attack  the  second  course  on  its  being 


EARLY  TRAVELERS  AND  TRADERS     273 

announced,  which  generally  takes  rather  more  than  half 
an  hour.  We  found  the  table  elegantly  replenished,  and 
ornamented  with  flowers ;  it  consisted  of  tarts,  puddings, 
creams,  all  kinds  of  preserves,  and  sweetmeats  (in  which 
latter  the  natives  excel) ;  likewise  every  variety  of  fruit 
in  the  greatest  profusion :  wines  were  placed  at  moderate 
distances,  as  before." 

Various  descriptions  have  been  given  by  British  trav- 
elers of  the  festivities  which  took  place  at  Bogota  between 
the  24th  and  the  30th  of  December,  partly  in  honor  of  the 
season,  and  partly  to  commemorate  the  victories  by  which 
the  independence  of  the  nation  had  been  won.  Imitations 
of  medieval  tournaments  were  given  in  appropriate — and 
presumably  stifling — costume.  A  queen  of  the  tourna- 
ment was  elected,  who  presented  the  prizes  for  sports  of 
a  medieval  nature  such  as  tilting  the  ring,  and  charging 
a  wooden  figure,  swung  on  a  pivot,  which,  if  not  fairly 
struck  with  a  lance,  flew  round  to  strike  the  discomfited 
rider  on  the  back.  In  addition,  more  modern  amusements, 
such  as  cutting  off  the  Turk's  head,  were  introduced. 

It  happened  that  in  1823  a  scarcity  of  funds  produced 
a  lack  of  knights.  So,  in  the  place  of  the  tournament,  a 
quieter  entertainment  was  held,  which  was  signficant  of 
the  spirit  of  the  times.  Seiior  Triana,  the  director  of 
the  Lancasterian  school,  brought  forward  twelve  pupils 
for  public  examination.  These,  standing  up  to  the  fire  of 
questions,  are  said  to  have  acquitted  themselves  very  well 
in  the  subjects  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  Spanish 
grammar,  and  arithmetic. 

There  is  no  denying  that  this  particular  procedure,  ad- 
mirable though  it  was,  was  a  little  too  restrained  in  its 
atmosphere  to  be  natural  to  the  flaming  tropics,  where 
declamation  and  costume  were  only  appreciated  on  a  pro- 
nounced scale.  In  the  early  days  of  the  Independence  to 
meet  even  a  typical  Northern  traveler  was  to  imagine 
oneself  on  the  boards  of  an  opera  house.  Here  is  a  de- 
scription of  these  by  a  contemporary  English  visitor : 


274.     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

' '  They  generally  wore  red  or  blue  pantaloons,  with  long 
boots,  spurs  with  immense  rowels,  broad-brimmed  hats, 
and  the  wrapping  cloaks  called  mantillas,  or  in  their  stead 
capotes,  or  roanas,  which  completely  envelop  the  wearer, 
like  the  cloaks  of  our  military.  They  go  well  armed,  hav- 
ing pistols  in  their  holsters  and  swords  by  their  sides, 
which  precautions  have  become  habitual,  through  the 
effects  of  protracted  war,  and  were  necessary  on  account 
of  the  disturbed  state  of  the  country. ' ' 

Notwithstanding  these  romantic  perambulations  the 
country  showed  itself  fully  prepared  to  enter  into  com- 
merce. Perhaps  one  of  the  most  striking  testimonies  to 
this  effect  is  to  be  found  in  one  of  the  first  concessions 
granted  by  the  free  state  of  Colombia.  This  concerned 
the  famous  pearl  oysters  for  which  so  many  tall  ships 
had  plowed  the  waves,  and  for  which  so  many  bucaneers 
had  slain,  and  fought,  and  bled.  Now,  the  exclusive  right 
of  fishing  for  pearl  oysters  with  machinery,  for  ten  years, 
was  given  to  Messrs.  Eundell,  Bridge,  and  Rundell,  of 
London !  An  eloquent  change  of  address !  This,  at  the 
time,  was  considered  by  an  expert  to  be  a  concession 
inferior  in  value  to  none  except  that  for  the  then  proposed 
cutting  of  the  Panama  Canal ! 

After  this  we  may  turn  to  a  minor  incident  which  illus- 
trates further  the  spirit  of  the  age.  The  son  of  the  fa- 
mous General  Miranda  must  have  inherited  his  father's 
temperament  and  convictions  in  no  small  degree,  for  a 
British  traveler  who  was  in  the  neighborhood  of  Caracas 
in  1823  relates  that,  as  he  was  breakfasting  at  an  inn  he 
was  joined  by  two  young  men,  the  sons  of  Generals  Mir- 
anda and  Wilson.  Wilson  was  on  his  way  to  take  up  his 
post  as  aide-de-camp  to  General  Bolivar,  while  Miranda 
was  about  to  set  up  a  printing  press  which  was  to  devote 
itself  to  the  cause  of  liberty. 

The  great  amount  of  survey  work  achieved  by  British 
officers  of  the  South  American  coasts  in  the  early  years 
of  the  nineteenth  century  has  been  referred  to.     Some 


EARLY  TRAVELERS  AND  TRADERS     275 

notable  performances  of  this  kind,  too,  were  made  on  the 
great  river  systems,  and,  as  these  come  within  a  different 
category,  they  may  as  well  be  noticed  here. 

Much  admirable  survey  work  was  effected  on  the  Pa- 
rana Eiver  by  Captain  B.  J.  Sullivan,  of  H.M.S.  Philomel. 
Commander  M'Kinnon  states  that  this  officer  was  on 
board  the  Alecto,  when  she  was  returning  from  the  up- 
river  expedition  against  Rosas.  The  little  war-steamer 
came  rushing  down  the  swift  stream  at  a  furious  pace,  but 
Sullivan  "coolly  stood  on  the  paddle-box,  and  conned  the 
vessel  by  a  motion  of  his  hand  to  the  quarter-master." 

One  of  the  most  enterprising  journeys  across  the  con- 
tinent was  that  undertaken  in  1834  by  two  young  naval 
men.  Lieutenant  W.  Smyth  and  Mr.  F.  Lowe,  who  arriving 
in  H.M.S.  Samarang  at  Callao,  took  to  discussing  the  in- 
terior of  Peru  with  an  English  and  some  Peruvian  resi- 
dents of  the  port. 

It  was  said  to  be  possible,  by  penetrating  inland  to  the 
banks  of  the  Pachitea  River,  to  enter  the  Ucayali  stream, 
thence  to  emerge  into  the  Marailon,  and  eventually  by 
means  of  the  Amazon  to  open  up  a  direct  route  to  the  At- 
lantic. The  seamy  side  of  the  trip  was  represented 
chiefly  by  the  inevitable  hardships  of  the  road,  and  by 
the  reported  presence  of  cannibals  on  both  banks  of  the 
Pachitea  River. 

Neither  of  these  prospects  sufficed  to  deter  the  two 
Samarang  officers,  who,  encouraged  both  by  their  captain 
and  the  British  consul-general  at  Callao,  determined  to 
make  the  attempt.  The  Peruvian  authorities  promised 
assistance,  and  all  that  remained  was  to  obtain  the  con- 
sent of  Commodore  Mason,  the  senior  officer  of  the  station. 

The  Samarang  was  due  to  sail  for  home  on  the  25th  of 
August,  and,  as  luck  would  have  it.  Commodore  Mason's 
ship,  the  Blonde,  only  arrived  just  in  time.  In  the  end 
it  resolved  itself  into  a  question  of  minutes  as  to  w^hether 
the  two  young  officers  would  sail  to  England  in  the  usual 
way  in  the  Samarang,  or  whether  they  would  have  the  op- 


276     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

portunity  of  undertaking  one  of  the  most  adventurous 
journeys  possible  across  the  continent. 

The  Samarang  was  already  under  sail  when  the  Com- 
modore's permission  arrived!  As  they  themselves  put 
it,  Smyth  and  Lowe  had  only  just  time  to  scrape  together 
a  few  traps,  and  to  bundle  down  into  the  last  boat  for  the 
shore ! 

The  two  Samarangs  had  need  of  all  their  unbounded 
enthusiasm,  for  they  soon  discovered  that  this  land  cruise 
of  theirs  was  not  to  be  all  plain  sailing.  The  young  Per- 
uvian Government  was  very  willing  to  assist,  but  its 
means  at  the  time  were  phenomenally  limited,  and  the  first 
instalments  of  mules  and  other  necessaries  rapidly  ab- 
sorbed all  the  oflScers'  available  private  store  of  cash. 
But  here  the  newly  formed  British  community  very  dis- 
interestedly stepped  into  the  breach  to  the  extent  of  sub- 
scribing sixty  pounds. 

In  the  end  the  two  set  out,  accompanied  by  some  Peru- 
vian oflScers,  who  were  instructed  to  render  them  every 
assistance  as  far  as  the  frontier.  The  senior  of  these 
was  a  Colonel  Althaus,  whose  name  as  a  gallant  patriot 
soldier  is,  I  find,  referred  to  on  several  occasions  in  the 
memoirs  of  British  ofiScers  in  the  revolutionary  cause. 
Indeed,  he  is  more  than  once  alluded  to  as  a  most  genial 
companion,  with  an  exceptional  fund  of  humor  which  kept 
his  comrades  continually  amused,  and  which  caused  him 
to  receive  unusually  kind  treatment  from  the  Spanish 
oflQcers  into  whose  hands  he  once  fell  as  a  captive  for  a 
time.  But  on  this  occasion  Althaus 's  services  appear  to 
have  been  of  a  very  mediocre  order.  Probably  the  ob- 
jects of  the  expedition  interested  him  too  little  and  its 
worries  too  much.  It  was  after  having  successfully  ne- 
gotiated the  high  and  snowy  levels  of  the  neighborhood 
of  the  Cerro  de  Pasco  that  the  troubles  with  the  reluctant 
Indian  carriers  became  acute,  and  Althaus  separated  him- 
self from  the  party,  and  abandoned  the  expedition.  His 
juniors,  however,  Major  Beltran  and  the  naval  lieutenant 


EARLY  TRAVELERS  AND  TRADERS     277 

Azcarate,  more  than  compensated  for  this  loss  by  the 
staunchness  and  good-comradeship  they  displayed  from 
start  to  finish. 

At  the  lofty  mining  town  of  Cerro  de  Pasco  they  came 
across  some  mining  machinery  which  had  been  erected 
by  an  English  company  in  1827.  The  company  had  failed, 
but  considering  this  remarkably  early  enterprise,  it  surely 
deserved  a  better  fate !  After  this,  it  may  be  mentioned 
in  parenthesis,  occurred  a  certain  disappointment  in  the 
expected  escort,  for  instead  of  two  hundred  soldiers  only 
nine  made  their  appearance.  And  these — perhaps  to  ren- 
der their  numbers  more  formidable — were  accompanied 
by  their  wives  and  children ! 

In  the  end — owing  to  the  reduced  circumstances  of  the 
party  and  the  continued  desertions  of  the  Indians — the 
route  originally  chosen  had  to  be  given  up,  and  it  was 
decided  to  make  for  the  Huallaga  Eiver  instead.  There 
was  no  more  question  now  of  mountain  sickness,  snow, 
and  barren  peaks.  Passing  downwards  through  coffee 
plantations  and  pleasant  vegetation,  they  embarked  at 
length  on  the  lovely  little  stream  of  the  Chinchao,  with 
the  keen  delight  of  sailors  setting  foot  even  in  the  frailest 
of  canoes. 

The  Chinchao  almost  immediately  led  into  the  Hual- 
laga, and  the  party  soon  found  itself  negotiating  the  rap- 
ids of  that  important  stream.  At  one  of  the  tiny  river 
ports  the  two  British  naval  officers  organized  a  ceremony 
such  as  those  waters  had  never  witnessed  before.  The  oc- 
casion was  the  launching  of  a  new  canoe  to  hold  the  Peru- 
vian officers.  Thanks  to  the  festal  exertions  of  the  en- 
tire party,  the  canoe  took  the  water  fluttering  with  British 
and  Peruvian  colors,  while  the  drums  and  pipes  of  the 
Indians  sounded  at  their  very  loudest ! 

After  this  laudable  joviality  it  was  a  little  disconcerting 
for  the  expedition  to  find  that  the  new  Indian  crews  re- 
fused to  start  unless  they  were  accompanied  in  the  canoes 
by  their  wives,  children,  dogs,  cats,  and  a  number  of  pots 


278      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

and  pans.  But  there  was  nothing  for  it,  and  so  it  was 
with  the  gunwales  of  its  canoes  almost  submerged  by  this 
unwelcome  and  heterogeneous  load  that  the  party  went 
on  its  way  downstream,  the  genial  Indians  presently  kill- 
ing for  food  some  red-bearded  monkeys  which,  owing  to 
the  unshaven  state  of  Smyth  and  Lowe,  they  insisted  on 
calling  the  Englishmen's  countrymen ! 

It  is  more  instructive  to  note  that  even  in  these  remote 
Indian  settlements  on  the  banks  of  the  various  streams 
printed  cottons,  green  baize,  ribbons,  cutlery,  glass  beads, 
and  other  objects  of  the  kind  were  to  be  met  with,  all  of 
British  manufacture.  In  fact,  "we  never  entered  a  place, 
that  was  more  than  a  small  village,"  say  the  joint  authors, 
''in  which  we  did  not  meet  with  some  of  the  manufac- 
tures of  our  own  country." 

It  is  on  reading  such  phrases  as  these  that  it  is  difficult 
to  refrain  from  the  condition  of  a  laudator  temporis  acti! 

At  the  next  halting  place  of  importance  the  party  found 
itself  received  with  an  amazing  amount  of  pomp  and  cere- 
mony. This,  it  eventually  appeared,  was  owing  to  the 
strategy  of  a  messenger  sent  in  advance,  who  had  little 
faith  in  the  half-savage  inhabitants.  As  a  precautionary 
measure  against  their  wilder  instincts  he  had  announced 
that  a  general,  his  aide-de-camp,  a  saint,  and  a  priest  were 
about  to  arrive !  The  prospect  of  this  militant,  ecclesias- 
tical, and  haloed  galaxy  completely  overawed  the  vil- 
lagers, and  when  the  officers  of  the  expedition  saw  the 
wealth  of  fowls,  fish,  and  plantains  which  awaited  them 
they  forgave  the  fertile  imagination  of  their  messenger ! 

In  due  course  the  party  emerged  upon  the  broad,  glassy 
stream  of  the  Ucayali,  and  both  the  Samarang  officers 
justly  congratulated  themselves  on  being  the  first  English- 
men to  float  on  these  waters.  Soon  after  this  the  expedi- 
tion became  the  guests  of  a  notable  Peruvian  missionary. 
Padre  Plaza,  who  used  his  very  important  influence  over 
the  Indians  in  their  favor. 

This  solitary  mission  station  at  Sarayucu,  a  few  miles 


EARLY  TRAVELERS  AND  TRADERS     279 

up  a  tributary  stream  of  the  Ucayali,  was  the  limit  of  the 
Peruvian  officers'  journey,  and  it  was  with  a  sincere  mu- 
tual regret  and  an  exchange  of  cheers  that  Beltran  and 
Azcarate  separated  themselves  from  their  British  com- 
rades, who  started  on  their  long  journey  downstream, 
their  quaint  craft  adorned  at  all  points  with  live  speci- 
mens of  the  rarer  birds  and  monkeys  such  as  the  two  had 
been  able  to  collect. 

The  remainder  of  the  journey  down  the  great  network 
of  the  Amazon  basin  streams  was  safely  effected.  No 
cannibal  attacks  were  encountered,  and,  indeed,  it  was 
only  when  the  party  began  to  approach  the  more  impor- 
tant Brazilian  centers  toward  the  Atlantic  coast  that  a 
vital  but  prosaic  inconvenience  began  to  be  felt — the  lack 
of  funds.  It  seemed  something  of  an  anomaly  that  an  ex- 
pedition which  had  braved  climate,  cataracts,  and  canni- 
bals, and  had  penetrated  the  heart  of  the  continent  from 
west  to  east  should  be  held  up  for  the  sake  of  a  few  dol- 
lars !  It  was  so,  however,  and  the  situation  was  only  re- 
lieved by  the  sale  of  a  double-barreled  gun,  a  valued  gift 
of  Captain  Paget 's  of  the  Samarang, 

On  the  proceeds  of  this  gun  they  continued  their 
journey  to  Para — and  even  had  a  few  coppers  to  spare 
for  a  canoe  ornamented  with  a  silver-gilt  crown  which 
they  encountered  on  its  way  upstream  on  a  religious  beg- 
ging expedition,  a  craft  which  came  gliding  along  the 
tropical  stream  with  flag  flying  and  to  the  pomp  of  drum 
beats  and  the  music  of  hymns ! 

After  this  they  floated  down  without  further  incident 
of  note  to  Para  where,  having  occupied  eight  months  on 
the  journey,  they  met  with  a  most  cordial  welcome  from 
the  officers  of  H.M.  sloop  Dispatch  which  happened  to 
be  lying  in  the  port,  as  well  as  from  the  British  merchants 
of  the  place.  Thus  ended  a  small  but  notable  expedition, 
the  value  of  whose  surveys  was  freely  and  fully  acknowl- 
edged by  the  Peruvian  Government. 

It  was  some  ten  years  later  that  the  upper  reaches  of 


280     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

the  second  greatest  river  system  of  the  continent  were 
opened  to  foreign  traffic.  In  1845  a  treaty  was  entered 
into  between  Great  Britain  and  Paraguay,  which  gave 
British  subjects  the  right  to  navigate  the  Paraguayan 
rivers.  Incidentally,  it  permitted  them  to  reside  in  any 
part  of  Paraguay — their  area  of  residence  had  previously 
been  confined  to  the  town  of  Asuncion — and  to  marry 
Paraguayans:  a  privilege  of  which  they  had  not  legally 
been  considered  as  worthy  until  then ! 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE    BRITISH    IN    BEAZIL    (l) 

Influence  of  the  Spanish  occupation  on  the  policy  of  Brazil — Some  at- 
tempt at  settlement  in  the  North — Irrigating  port  regulations — 
Bahia  as  a  place  of  call — The  court  of  Portugal — Political  situa- 
tion in  the  Peninsula — Dilemma  of  the  regent,  Prince  Joao — 
— The  result  of  vacillation — Eventual  adoption  of  the  British 
proposals — Advance  of  Junot — Flight  of  the  court — Arrival  of  the 
royal  fleet  at  Bahia — The  event  described — Enthusiasm  of  the  Brazil- 
ians— The  British  vessels — Inconveniences  endured  by  the  royal  party 
and  the  court  on  the  voyage — Assistance  rendered  by  the  sailors  in  a 
delicate  situation — The  manufacture  of  garments  at  sea — Prince 
Pedro's  clothes — Arrival  of  the  royal  party  at  Rio  de  Janeiro — Joy  of 
the  inhabitants — The  British  fleet  in  Brazilian  waters — Arrival  of  Sir 
W.  Sidney  Smith — Opening  of  the  Brazilian  ports — Concessions  to  for- 
eigners— Erection  of  an  English  church — Differing  views  of  the  local 
ecclesiastics — A  subtle  bishop — Testimony  of  English  and  American 
clerics — Mercantile  collections  and  consular  fees — Enterprise  of  the 
British  merchants — An  overflow  of  imported  goods — Want  of  judg- 
ment and  its  results — Consequences  of  climatic  ignorance — Incidents 
of  some  naval  cruises — Loss  of  the  Agamemnon — Contemporary  mid- 
shipmen's quarters. 

THE  influence  of  the  Spaniards  on  the  policy  of 
Brazil  lasted  for  a  considerable  time  after  the 
Portuguese  Empire  had  thrown  off  the  dominion 
of  Spain.  Notwithstanding  the  genuine  friendship  which 
existed  between  the  British  and  Portuguese  in  Europe, 
several  armed  collisions  between  the  two  nations  occurred 
in  Brazil.  The  British  occasionally  joined  the  expedi- 
tions of  the  Dutch  West  India  Company,  that  had  been 
formed  for  the  conquest  and  colonization  of  the  north  of 
Brazil,  and  in  1629  we  find  an  Irishman  of  the  name  of 
James  Purcel  in  command  of  a  settlement  established  on 
the  Island  of  Tocujos. 

After  a  desperate  resistance  the  place  capitulated  on 

281 


282     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

terms  that  were  extraordinarily  liberal.  Not  only  were 
its  defenders  permitted  to  evacuate  the  place  and  to  re- 
tain their  property,  but  it  was  agreed  that  they  should  be 
provided  with  a  free  passage  to  Portugal !  This  attempt 
does  not  seem  to  have  been  a  solitary  one,  and  the  Portu- 
guese were  loud  in  their  complaints  that  the  quantity  of 
tobacco  grown  by  these  unwelcomed  settlers  was  suffi- 
ciently important  to  injure  the  trade  of  Para. 

Perhaps  it  was  the  bitterness  engendered  by  this  which 
rendered  the  events  of  the  next  collision  between  the  two 
races  so  much  more  embittered.  This  occurred  during 
the  very  next  year,  and  the  scene  of  hostilities  was  again 
the  Island  of  Tocujos,  to  which  some  two  hundred  Eng- 
lish had  repaired  under  the  command  of  one  Thomas,  an 
old  soldier,  who  is  said  to  have  served  with  distinction  in 
the  Low  Countries.  Thomas  was  captured  and  cut  to 
pieces  by  his  enraged  opponents,  after  which  the  fort  sur- 
rendered. A  later  expedition  under  a  leader  of  the  name 
given  as  Roger  Fray — which,  as  Southey  reasonably  ex- 
plains, is  probably  the  Portuguese  rendering  of  Fryer  or 
Frere — met  with  no  better  success. 

Even  in  the  South,  where  no  such  attempts  were  made, 
Brazilian  ports,  generally  speaking,  remained  inhospita- 
ble places,  and  British  sailors,  including  the  famous  Cap- 
tain Cook,  met  with  every  obstacle  which  could  be  put  in 
the  way  of  intercourse  with  the  shore. 

Landing  parties  were  only  permitted  under  a  Brazilian 
guard,  and  arrests  of  travelers  under  the  most  flimsy  pre- 
texts were  frequent.  In  fact,  the  Brazilian  colonial  au- 
thorities made  a  conscientious  attempt  to  give  their  ports 
a  sufficiently  unpleasant  name  to  render  them  unpopular 
in  the  eyes  of  the  undesired  foreigner ! 

These  Brazilian  ports,  more  especially  that  of  Bahia, 
were  visited  by  a  number  of  British  vessels  bound  for 
India.  Just  as  Pedro  Alvarez  Cabral,  bound  for  the 
shining  East,  had  lit  by  accident  upon  Bahia,  and  thus  dis- 
covered Brazil,  so  the  British  East  Indiamen  of  a  later 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  283 

era  found  that  the  set  of  wind  and  tide  made  it  to  their 
advantage  to  sail  first  to  the  southwest  skirting  the  Bra- 
zilian shore,  until  they  had  attained  to  a  point  most  fa- 
vorable for  them  to  shape  their  course  for  the  east. 

These  would  frequently  put  in  at  Bahia,  and  less  often 
at  Eio  de  Janeiro;  but  it  was  seldom  indeed  that  their 
reception  at  either  of  these  ports  was  spoken  of  with  any 
enthusiasm  by  the  seafarers.  It  was  not  until  Brazil  be- 
came a  kingdom  that  this  situation  changed.  When  the 
change  occurred,  however,  it  was  a  sufficiently  momen- 
tous one,  connected,  indeed,  with  nothing  less  than  the  ad- 
vent to  Brazil  of  the  Portuguese  court. 

In  order  to  start  at  the  beginning  of  Great  Britain's 
share  in  the  kingdom  and  empire  of  Brazil,  it  is  necessary 
to  flit  in  the  winter  of  1807  to  the  north  across  the  inter- 
vening ocean  to  where  the  court  of  Portugal,  with  the  re- 
gent Prince  Joao  at  its  head,  was  fluttering  uneasily  on 
the  westernmost  fringe  of  Europe. 

In  this  heyday  of  Napoleon's  power  no  refuge — saving 
moral  surrender  and  an  alliance  with  the  French — re- 
mained except  across  the  seas,  for  the  advancing  soldiers 
of  France  lay  between  Lisbon  and  Europe.  England,  the 
old  ally,  a  gray-skied  but  hospitable,  lay  to  the  north. 
But  the  political  disadvantages  of  a  flight  to  a  foreign 
country  were  too  weighty,  and  its  effect  upon  the  Por- 
tuguese peasantry  could  not  fail  to  be  lamentable. 

To  the  south,  six  thousand  miles  across  the  ocean,  lay 
Brazil,  the  majestic  colony  that  represented  a  continent 
in  itself.  It  was  true  that  until  then  Brazil's  principal 
fame  in  the  northerland  had  been  on  account  of  the  trea- 
sures she  had  yielded  up.  For  centuries  Brazil  had  been 
milked;  even  then  she  had  never  been  found  dry  either 
of  produce  or  affection.  The  loyalty  of  the  Brazilians 
had  flourished  like  a  wallflower  on  its  stone,  with  no  out- 
ward evidence  of  support  and  encouragement.  In  its 
terrible  stress  the  little  kingdom  of  Portugal  had  been 
cheered  by  the  cries  of  devotion  which  had  gone  up  from 


284     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

this  tropical  and  neglected  colony.  The  refuge  of  Brazil, 
moreover,  had  been  strongly  recommended  by  England, 
and  at  that  period  British  recommendations  were  not, 
after  all,  hints  which  it  was  advisable  to  ignore. 

These  circumstances  had  helped  to  settle  the  mind  of 
Joao,  perched  on  the  cliffs  in  the  neighborhood  of  Lisbon 
like  a  doubting  seabird  meditating  flight.  Had  the  matter 
been  less  urgent  it  is  certain  that  Brazil  would  have 
whistled  in  vain  for  a  king,  for  at  the  best  times  Joao's 
mind  strongly  resented  the  operation  of  being  made  up, 
and  probably  no  ruler  ever  possessed  a  temperament  less 
suited  for  governing. 

As  it  was,  the  prince  regent  had  vacillated  giddily  for  a 
time  between  the  demands  of  the  French  and  the  British. 
Once,  judging  the  French  peril  to  be  the  nearer  of  the  two, 
he  had  acceded  in  despair  to  the  terms  of  that  nation,  and 
had  begun  to  carry  out  the  stipulated  measures  against 
the  British.  He  discovered  almost  immediately  that,  so 
far  as  his  own  interests  were  concerned,  he  had  fallen  into 
a  grievous  error.  Junot  was  already  advancing  light- 
heartedly  toward  Lisbon,  and  the  regent  was  thunder- 
struck to  hear  of  a  French  proclamation  in  the  face  of  his 
submission,  to  the  effect  that ' '  the  House  of  Braganca  no 
longer  reigned!" 

Joao,  his  plans  veering  all  round  the  compass,  turned  in 
haste  to  England  for  aid,  and  announced  his  intention  of 
embarking  under  the  protection  of  the  British  fleet.  But 
the  measures,  instigated  by  France,  that  he  had  already 
taken  against  the  British  residents  in  his  kingdom  had 
raised  the  anger  of  that  nation.  Lord  Strangford,  her 
ambassador,  had  demanded  his  passports,  and  had  em- 
barked on  board  the  Eibernia,  one  of  the  vessels  of  the 
British  fleet  commanded  by  Sir  Sidney  Smith,  which  im- 
mediately began  a  rigorous  blockade  of  Lisbon. 

On  the  27th  of  November  after  some  hurried  negotia- 
tions. Lord  Strangford  landed,  and  learned  from  Joao  of 
his  renewed  resolution  to  fall  in  with  the  British  plans, 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  285 

and  to  move  his  court  to  Brazil.  Poor  Prince  Joao's 
mind,  unstable  at  the  best  of  times,  must  have  become 
completely  confused  by  the  rapidity  of  these  changes  of 
plan.  On  the  one  day  he  had  sacrificed  the  time-honored 
alliance  with  England,  and  imagined  that  he  had  defi- 
nitely bound  himself  to  France.  Almost  on  the  next  he 
had  sought  the  arms  of  England  again;  and  now,  at  two 
days'  notice,  he,  his  family,  and  his  court  were  to  be  up- 
rooted from  their  native  soil,  and  were  to  be  sent  down 
below  the  Equator  to  the  great  colony  which,  it  was  said, 
was  all  aflame  to  receive  them. 

Fortunately  for  himself,  Joao  had  never  suffered  from 
a  surfeit  of  dignity;  had  this  been  so,  his  discomfiture 
must  have  been  still  more  acute.  But  at  this  crisis  one 
of  his  actions — a  typical  one — toward  the  advancing  Ju- 
not,  now  again  an  enemy,  reveals  the  curious  complica- 
tions of  his  mind.  At  the  last  moment,  yielding  to  one  of 
the  impulses  of  his  weak  and  kindly  nature,  he  ordered 
a  confidential  servant  to  prepare  quarters  and  a  meal  for 
the  French  general,  in  order  that  the  latter  should  find 
himself  comfortable  on  his  arrival ! 

The  scene  of  the  royal  departure  from  Europe  was,  in 
its  way,  as  dramatic  as  any  other  of  that  very  stirring 
period.  Joao  had  selected  the  29th  of  November  as  the 
day  for  that  fateful  event.  The  interval  for  preparation 
between  that  and  the  27th,  it  must  be  admitted,  was  not 
long.  But  even  here  a  certain  amount  of  procrastination 
was  evident,  for,  judging  by  the  rate  of  his  previous  prog- 
ress, Junot  might  be  expected  to  arrive  on  the  very  day 
of  the  court's  departure,  or,  at  the  latest,  on  the  following 
morning. 

From  the  days  when  the  keels  of  ships  first  clove  the 
Southern  Atlantic,  the  Brazilian  port  of  Bahia  has  offered 
a  favorable  landfall  for  navigators.  So  that,  since  chance 
and  its  geographical  position  had  already  led  to  it  so 
large  a  number  of  humbler  explorers,  it  was  only  natural 
that  Bahia  should  have  been  the  first  of  the  Brazilian 


286     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

ports  to  witness  the  arrival  of  the  fleet  conveying  the 
royal  party. 

The  approach  of  the  ships  is  easy  to  picture,  for  the 
scene  here  is,  in  its  way,  one  of  the  most  romantic  in  South 
America.  There  has  been  little  outward  change  from 
that  day  to  this  in  the  verdure-covered  promontory,  jut- 
ting out  into  the  blue  waters  on  one  side  of  the  bay,  and  in 
the  bay  itself  with  the  pink  and  white  and  yellow  houses  of 
the  town  at  its  edge  shining  brilliantly  in  the  strong  sun- 
light against  the  background  of  vivid  blue,  into  which 
pricked  upwards  here  and  there  the  feathery  green  heads 
of  the  palms.  There  were  the  lower  tiers  of  the  port 
buildings,  backed  by  the  little  cliifs,  on  the  summit  of 
which  the  houses  and  the  serried  churches  of  the  main 
town  reared  themselves. 

Without  a  doubt  every  point  of  vantage  was  agog  with 
spectators.  Sallow-complexioned  officials,  merchants, 
and  planters  were  gazing  eagerly  across  the  glittering 
waters,  while  the  crowds  of  stout,  big-bodied  Negro  men 
and  women — the  Negresses  of  Bahia  still  hold  the  proud 
reputation  of  being  the  largest  owners  of  avoirdupois  in 
the  world ! — stood  with  mouths  agape  and  their  wide-open 
eyes  displaying  an  unusually  liberal  circle  of  white  about 
the  pupils.  They  were  all  fervent  folk  these,  whatever 
their  shade  of  color,  and  in  the  eyes  of  the  general  popu- 
lace the  royal  personages  had  been  invested  with  a  mystic 
and  almost  holy  glamour  that  made  the  sight  of  them  in 
the  flesh  seem  an  unearthly  privilege. 

Thus  when  the  canvas  of  the  advancing  vessels  stood 
out  high  and  clear  against  the  horizon  a  boundless  en- 
thusiasm prevailed  ashore.  Some  ran  to  seek  out  bunt- 
ing until  every  colored  rag  in  the  city  floated  lazily  in 
the  hot  air.  Others  ran  to  fire  saluting  guns,  to  compete 
with  those  which  were  already  banging  away  from  the 
little  marine  fort  set  in  the  waters  of  the  bay — for  rejoic- 
ing without  good,  honest  noise  has  always  seemed  chas- 
tened joy  to  the  Brazilian.     Yet  others,  amid  the  shout- 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  287 

ing  of  the  crowds,  hurried  to  let  loose  the  flights  of  cere- 
monial rockets  so  dear  to  the  Iberian  heart,  whether  by 
day  or  by  night. 

It  was  in  the  face  of  all  this  that  the  fleet  sailed  up  and 
dropped  anchor  in  the  bay.  The  British  had  proved 
themselves  faithful  watchdogs.  The  four  trim  and 
stately  warships  of  that  nation  which  had  served  as  escort 
throughout  the  voyage  were  to  be  distinguished  from  the 
rest,  if  for  no  other  reason  than  that  their  canvas  shone 
strangely  white  by  comparison.  The  ships  were  three 
fine  74 's,  and  a  98,  and  on  the  flagship,  the  Marlborough, 
floated  the  broad  pennant  which  Sir  Sidney  Smith  had 
specially  authorized  Captain  Moore  to  fly,  when  past 
Madeira,  to  give  him  greater  weight  for  his  important 
mission. 

Had  the  overjoyed  Brazilians  been  in  a  more  critical 
mood  they  would  have  noticed  that  in  the  matter  of  out- 
ward appearances  and  rigid  nautical  pomp  the  Portu- 
guese vessels  suffered  not  a  little  by  comparison.  These, 
having  started  ill-prepared  and  in  haste,  were  now  soiled 
and  untidy  naval  ducklings. 

The  interiors  of  their  hulls  were  in  no  better  case. 
There,  most  decidedly  reigned  no  evidence  of  intrinsic 
glory.  In  some  respects  the  voyage  had  proved  probably 
the  most  unique  undertaken  by  any  ordinary  people,  to 
say  nothing  of  royalty.  So  fevered  had  been  the  em- 
barkation at  Lisbon  that  many  ladies  found  themselves 
without  a  single  change  of  garment  with  which  to  face 
these  thousands  of  miles  of  travel!  And — a  horror  of 
horrors  that  at  all  costs  had  to  be  kept  from  the  worship- 
ing Brazilians ! — this  applied  not  only  to  ladies  of  high 
degree  but  to  the  female  members  of  the  royal  party  it- 
self. 

In  mid-ocean,  when  the  state  of  affairs  could  no  longer 
be  borne  with  equanimity,  appeals  had  been  made  from 
the  royalty-freighted  Portuguese  vessels  to  the  Marlbor- 
ough.   Captain  Moore  had  shown  himself  sympathetic  in 


288     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

this  delicate  situation,  and  had  rendered  such  assistance 
as  he  could.  But  even  in  their  most  thoughtful  moments 
British  naval  commanders  do  not — or,  at  all  events,  are 
not  supposed  to — carry  spare  outfits  for  ladies.  Never- 
theless, his  men  seem  once  again  to  have  more  than  justi- 
fied their  willing  and  handy  reputation.  Cloths,  sheets, 
and  blankets  were  produced,  and  these  eventually  took 
the  place  of  many  silks  and  satins. 

Whether  Jack  actually  went  the  length  of  assisting 
with  the  needle,  I  do  not  know.  Yet  I  can  imagine  a 
boatswain's  mate,  surrounded  by  sewing  satellites,  tack- 
ling even  such  tender  technicalities  as  these  with  a  calm 
resolution  before  which  the  sangfroid  of  even  the  sewing- 
machine  pirate  in  ''Peter  Pan"  would  pale!  As  for  the 
bed-sheet-suit  in  which  Prince  Pedro  and  many  others 
landed  on  Brazilian  soil,  I  would  wager  ten  dozen  of  the 
finest  Bahia  oranges  that  these  were  stitched  together  by 
one  of  the  watches  of  the  British  vessels ! 

In  any  case  the  proceedings  on  shore  could  have  left 
the  royal  party  very  little  leisure  to  reflect  on  their  impro- 
vised garments.  For  Joao,  whose  exit  from  Portugal  had 
of  necessity  been  as  rapid  and  furtive  as  that  of  a  hunted 
rabbit,  found  himself  welcomed  in  this  glorious  tropical 
country  with  even  greater  acclamation  and  more  joyous 
pomp  than  any  ordinary  crowned  hero  of  a  hundred 
fights!  Thus  the  strange,  and  occasionally  comforting, 
vicissitudes  which  attend  the  lives  of  princes  as  well  as 
those  of  lesser  folk  must  have  been  brought  strongly 
home  to  him. 

A  month  later  the  four  British  guardian  ships  escorted 
the  Portuguese  royal  vessels  still  further  to  the  south,  and 
after  nine  days  at  sea  the  fleet  sailed  through  the  narrow 
channel  between  the  stately  mountain  peaks  into  the  en- 
trancing and  dreamlike  harbor  of  Rio  de  Janeiro,  and 
cast  anchor  before  the  houses  of  the  town. 

It  was  one  of  the  most  lovely  spots  in  all  South  America 
that  the  court  of  Portugal,  somewhat  awed  and  amazed 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  289 

at  the  aspect  of  the  tremendous  coast,  landed  at  the  time 
of  year  when  the  fierce  summer's  sun  rays  were  just  be- 
ginning to  give  way  to  the  rains  of  autumn. 

Here  was  a  magnificent  opportunity  for  an  epigram 
from  the  royal  lips,  or,  failing  a  full-blown  epigram,  some 
lesser  utterance  which  might  at  least  have  set  a  princely 
seal  on  an  event  which  was  actually  of  first  class  histori- 
cal importance.  But  there  exists  no  evidence  that  he 
did  not  fail  to  miss  the  opportunity !  Perhaps — like  many 
ordinary  travelers  before  and  since  that  event — he  was 
fully  and  honorably  occupied  in  gaping  at  the  majesty 
of  the  scene.  In  any  case  he  did  not  forget  to  adorn  Cap- 
tain Moore's  breast  with  the  Portuguese  Order  of  the 
Tower  and  Sword,  as  a  token  that  the  British  squadron's 
task,  now  completed,  had  been  successfully  performed. 

It  soon  became  evident,  however,  that  this  duty  was 
merely  a  preliminary  to  a  long  spell  of  duty  for  the 
British  fleet  on  the  Brazilian  station.  Almost  immedi- 
ately afterwards  Sir  W.  Sidney  Smith  came  out  in  the 
Foudroyant  of  80  guns  to  take  over  the  chief  command, 
and  the  British  vessels,  serving  Brazilian  interests,  were 
rather  jealously  nursed  by  the  Brazilian  authorities. 

In  the  meantime,  having  escorted  the  royal  personages 
and  seen  the  court  safely  established  at  Rio  de  Janeiro, 
we  may  as  well  take  a  turn  ashore  with  the  rest,  and  follow 
in  the  footsteps  of  the  able  Lord  Strangford,  the  first  of 
the  corps  of  ambassadors  to  follow  the  royal  family  to 
its  new  capital.  In  its  new  and  kingly  circumstances  it 
was  clearly  out  of  the  question  that  the  old  colonial  plan 
of  secluding  and  guarding  from  foreign  interference  the 
trade  of  Brazil  could  be  continued.  The  ports  had  been 
declared  open;  a  new  treaty  was  discussed  and  signed, 
and,  egged  on  by  Lord  Strangford,  the  Portuguese  began 
to  make  half-reluctant  efforts  to  clear  the  great  land  of 
Brazil  of  its  honored  dust  of  centuries. 

An  important  feature  of  this  treaty  was  that  it  accorded 
ecclesiastical  rights  to  the  British  for  the  first  time  in  the 


290     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

history  of  Portugal  or  Brazil.  It  permitted  the  British 
to  build  a  church  of  their  own,  provided  that  its  exterior 
architecture  were  in  the  form  of  a  private  house,  and  that 
no  bells  should  sound  above  its  still  dubiously  regarded 
roof. 

This  concession  was  destined  to  raise  a  pretty  flutter 
in  the  local  ecclesiastical  dovecot.  As  fate  would  have  it, 
the  papal  nuncio  was  in  Rio  at  the  time  it  was  made,  and 
this  nuncio  cast  a  very  jaundiced  eye  on  the  quite  modest 
exhibition  of  liberality.  Having  failed  to  get  it  rescinded, 
he  bethought  himself  of  some  counter-blasts.  There  was 
the  Inquisition,  which  for  the  last  half  century  had  been 
in  disuse  in  Lisbon,  and  which  had  never  even  been  intro- 
duced into  Brazil !  If  the  heretic  church,  why  not  the  In- 
quisition by  its  side?  It  was  an  ideal  moment,  urged  the 
earnest  nuncio,  for  the  reestablishment  of  that  much 
needed  tribunal.  What  could  be  more  effective  in  the 
way  of  corrective  medicines,  he  may  have  added,  than  a 
stout  and  straining  rack,  a  trusty  ''boot,"  or  a  really  re- 
liable spiked  ''Virgin,"  with  a  few  odd  thumbscrews  and 
minor  persuaders  to  fill  up  the  gaps!  But  even  such 
tempting  offers  as  these  proved  of  no  avail,  and  the  mor- 
tified cleric  had,  perforce,  to  watch  the  obnoxious  building 
rising  under  his  very  nose ! 

The  bishop  of  Rio  de  Janeiro,  on  the  other  hand,  took 
quite  a  different  view  of  this  first  English  church  to  be 
erected  in  Iberian  South  America.  He  openly  admitted 
that  he  had  no  objection  whatever  to  its  presence.  "The 
English,"  he  argued  with  an  authority  that  was  perhaps 
half  grave  and  half  jocular,  "have  really  no  religion,  but 
they  are  a  proud  and  obstinate  people.  If  you  oppose 
them  they  will  persist,  and  make  it  an  affair  of  infinite 
importance ;  but  if  you  concede  to  their  wishes,  the  chapel 
will  be  built,  and  no  one  will  ever  go  near  it. ' ' 

This  was  probably  a  very  subtle  bishop.  His  own  point 
of  view,  at  all  events,  seems  to  have  been  justified  by  the 
remarks  of  the  Rev.  R.  Walsh,  a  pleasant  writer,  who 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  291 

was  chaplain  of  the  embassy  at  Rio  some  twenty  years 
later. 

''This  argument,"  complains  Walsh,  ''had  its  weight, 
and  the  Brazilians  say  he  was  right,  for  the  event  has 
verified  the  prediction." 

The  expenses  of  this  new  church  were  met  in  a  fashion 
of  which  examples  are  to  be  remarked  in  the  British  "fac- 
tories" at  such  places  as  Lisbon,  Oporto,  Madeira,  and 
elsewhere.  By  a  voluntary  tax  on  their  own  goods  the 
British  merchants  provided  funds  for  the  building  and 
upkeep  of  the  church,  the  stipend  of  the  chaplain,  and  for 
purposes  of  general  charity. 

This  brings  us  to  the  topic  of  the  British  mercantile 
community,  which  was  now  established  at  Rio,  having  the 
advantage  of  a  special  judge,  a  Juiz  Conservador,  whose 
business  it  was  to  attend  solely  to  their  affairs,  and  to 
see  to  it  that  justice  was  done  them. 

Whatever  their  chasteners  may  say  of  the  enterprise  of 
the  British  merchants  of  the  present  day,  their  ancestors 
showed  no  lack  of  the  quality  then.  No  sooner  were  the 
commercial  doors  of  Brazil  flung  open  than  the  traders 
rushed  through  with  all  the  enthusiasm  of  a  modern  queue 
besieging  the  early  doors  of  a  theater.  Not  only  did  they 
board  every  available  ship  and  come  bobbing  merrily 
southward  over  the  Equator,  but  they  sent  their  goods 
with  more  zeal  than  discrimination.  As  to  their  wares, 
they  came  and  still  they  came,  in  brig,  barquentine,  and 
full-rigged  ship,  until  private  houses  were  impressed  into 
the  service  to  act  as  auxiliaries  to  the  choked  warehouses, 
and  the  eyes  of  the  people  of  Rio  grew  very  round  and 
still  more  brilliant  at  the  astonishingly  high  and  pleasant 
rents  that  their  stones  and  mortar  now  brought  them  in. 

As  for  the  customs-house,  its  building  was  overflowed 
and  swamped  in  the  very  early  days  of  the  commercial 
rush,  and  very  soon  the  despairing  officials  abandoned  the 
attempt  to  cope  with  their  task.  Truth  to  tell,  at  that 
period  the  first  result  could  be  achieved  by  quite  modest 


292     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

shipments,  and  the  second  by  even  the  faintest  pressure 
of  hard  work !  But  the  results  were  unfortunate  for  the 
shippers.  As  the  forest  of  masts  thickened  over  the 
bright  waters  of  the  bay,  so  did  the  heaps  of  strewn  mer- 
chandise extend  further  along  the  beach.  According  to 
an  eye-witness,  these  were  some  of  the  objects  which  lit- 
tered the  shore :  salt,  casks  of  ironmongery  and  nails,  salt 
fish,  hogsheads  of  cheese,  hats,  small  mountains  of  vari- 
ous-sized crates,  hogsheads  of  earthen  and  glassware, 
cordage,  bottled  and  barreled  porter,  paints,  gum,  resin, 
tar,  and  an  almost  infinite  catalogue  of  other  objects.  At- 
tached to  these  first  shipments  were  what  might  be  termed 
some  side-harvests  of  profit  for  those  shrewd  folk  who 
understood  the  art  of  profiting  from  other  people's  mis- 
fortunes. For  vast  quantities  of  goods  damaged  by  rain 
and  sun,  and  vast  quantities  that  were  not,  were  sold,  os- 
tensibly for  the  benefit  of  the  underwriters,  but  in  reality 
for  that  of  the  overjoyed  Portuguese  and  Brazilians  who 
bought  them  for  a  song ! 

That  some  of  these  objects  should  have  realized  a  small 
price  was  natural  enough.  Some  of  the  manufacturers 
*  had  permitted  their  enthusiasm  to  outrun  their  geographi- 
cal and  climatic  knowledge.  Thus  the  aspect  of  those  pa- 
thetic consignments  of  stoves  and  warming  pans  would 
have  moved  the  soberest  Brazilian  to  violent  hilarity  had 
he  had  i\\e  faintest  understanding  of  their  purpose.  But 
when  it  came  to  steel  skates,  such  as  actually  arrived  in 
considerable  numbers  in  the  first  ships,  all  comment  ends 
— what  was  to  be  said  to  these ! 

But  trust  a  new  land  to  improvise  uses  for  even  the 
most  unpromising  objects !  Very  soon  the  warming  pans 
found  themselves  very  much  in  their  element,  for,  handled 
by  perspiring  Negroes,  they  were  used  to  skim  the  scum 
from  the  surface  of  the  boiling  sugar.  The  skates  served 
occasionally  as  door-latches;  but  their  steel  was  more 
frequently  fashioned  into  knives,  and  often  employed  for 
far  more  heated  purposes  than  the  innocent  maker  of  the 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  293 

skate  had  ever  suspected!  Far  more  appropriate  were 
some  invitation  cards  decorated  with  the  rose,  the  sham- 
rock, and  the  thistle,  which,  distributed  for  the  official 
opening  of  the  senate  house,  caused  a  natural  and  puzzled 
flutter  of  delight  among  the  British  community  until  it 
was  discovered  that  the  simple  and  unsophisticated  reason 
for  their  emplo^Tnent — like  that  given  by  the  man  called 
Brown  for  his  wearing  of  the  Macpherson  kilt — was  that 
they  happened  to  have  been  bought  ready  made,  and  paid 
for! 

But  these  land  affairs  have  caused  us  to  overshoot  the 
course  of  the  navy.  Most  of  this  time  Sir  W.  Sidney 
Smith,  in  command  of  the  British  fleet,  was  acting  the  part 
of  marine  guardian  angel  in  the  harbor  of  Rio  de  Janeiro, 
while  Joao,  appreciating  the  security  thus  offered,  played 
the  part  of  a  solicitous  mother  fowl  toward  his  defenders. 
The  officers  of  the  British  fleet  on  the  Brazilian  coast  were 
apt  to  complain  that  the  station  was  too  inactive  a  one. 
It  is  certain  that  the  regent  dreaded  the  British  vessels 
putting  out  to  sea.  Occasionally,  however,  they  would 
slip  out,  and  that  fine  64  ship  the  Agamemnon  continued 
to  indulge  in  at  least  one  important  cruise  in  spite  of  the 
prince's  anxiety. 

On  this  cruise  she  correctly  ascertained  the  situation 
of  the  rocks  of  Martin  Vaz  and  the  Island  of  Trinidad. 
On  this  latter  island  the  Agamemnon  had  an  unexpected 
find.  Here  they  discovered  seven  men  of  the  crew  of  an 
American  whaler,  who  had  existed  on  the  island  for 
eighteen  months.  They  had  been  landed  in  order  to  effect 
a  cure  for  scurvy,  and  their  vessel,  lacking  a  good  anchor- 
age, had  been  blown  away  from  the  spot  in  a  gale.  So 
here  they  were,  seven  exact  models  of  Robinson  Crusoe, 
clothed  from  head  to  foot  in  hairy  goatskins,  and  each 
with  an  eighteen  months '  growth  of  beard  of  his  own. 

These  seven  exiles  were  staunch-hearted  fellows,  for 
they  refused  to  be  taken  off  by  the  Agamemnon,  feeling 
certain  that  their  own  vessel  would  return  to  fetch  them. 


294     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

One  can  only  hope  that  their  faith  was  suitably  rewarded. 

As  for  the  Agamemnon  herself,  in  1809,  the  following 
year,  this  fine  vessel.  Nelson's  favorite  ship,  was  wrecked 
to  the  south  of  Brazil  on  an  island  in  the  neighborhood  of 
the  river  Plate. 

There  was  a  greater  difference  between  the  tropical 
cruising  of  the  early  nineteenth  century  and  of  the  early 
twentieth  than  the  average  landsman  realizes.  Salt  junk 
and  weevil-haunted  biscuits  have  come  down  with  popular 
tradition,  of  course.  But  there  was  far  more  than  that. 
Here,  for  instance,  is  Mr.  Walsh's  description  of  the  mid- 
shipmen's quarters  on  board  of  H.M.  frigate  Galatea, 
in  which  he  was  invited  to  dine,  and  where  he  appears 
to  have  spent  a  very  enjoyable  hour  or  so : 

"They  were  divided  into  two  messes,  the  larboard  and 
the  starboard.  These  were  little  recesses  boarded  off  on 
each  side  of  the  mainmast,  lighted  by  bull's-eyes,  but  so 
faintly  that  it  was  necessary  to  have  candles  at  mid-day. 
It  was  so  intensely  hot,  that  we  were  all  obliged  to  strip, 
and  dine  in  our  trousers  and  shirts." 

Nevertheless  Walsh  found  among  their  good  company, 
none  of  those  mannerisms  such  as  had  been  depicted  by 
Congreve  and  Smollet.  So,  you  modern  landsmen,  when 
you  next  picture  one  of  these  fine  frigates  heeling  her 
stately  pile  of  canvas  to  the  trade  wind,  or  standing  up 
in  the  breathless  air  straight  as  a  pillar  of  pearl,  remem- 
ber that  the  life  of  her  midshipmen  down  below  was  not  all 
beer  and  skittles — to  say  nothing  of  ice,  electric  fans,  and 
fresh  air ! 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE  BRITISH   IN   BRAZIL    (ll) 

An  entertainment  on  board  H.M.S.  London  in  Rio  Harbor — Symbolical 
decorations — A  feat  in  toasts — Prince  Joao  honors  Sir  W.  Sidney 
Smith — Withdrawal  of  the  regular  fleet — Lord  Beresford  arrives  with 
a  British  squadron — Life  on  the  Brazilian  station — An  American 
critic  on  the  court  at  Rio — The  opera — A  mixed  chorus — Joao  VI  and 
a  mercantile  captain — Incidents  during  the  visit  of  the  Emperor  Pedro 
II  to  an  American  passenger  steamer — Unexpected  welcome  on  the  part 
of  the  City  of  Pittsburg's  steerage  passengers — Some  difficulties  of 
British  naval  commanders  on  the  Brazilian  coast — Imagined  grievances 
— Necessity  for  tact — Incidents  at  Rio  and  at  Maranhao — A  lesson 
at  Pernambuco — Arrival  of  Lord  Cochrane — Difficulties  of  his  situa- 
tion as  commander-in-chief  of  the  Brazilian  navy — His  crews — The 
fleet  in  Rio  harbor — Commander  James's  description  of  Cochrane — 
Alleged  recruiting  methods  of  the  latter — Opinion  of  the  British  officers 
— Capture  of  Bahia — Pursuit  of  the  Portuguese  fleet — Local  disturb- 
ances at  Para — The  riot  crushed  by  Captain  Grenfell — Pimishment  of 
the  ringleaders — Terrible  fate  of  a  number  of  prisoners — Various  ex- 
planations of  the  tragedy — Cochrane's  relations  with  the  Brazilians — 
He  is  created  Marquis  of  Maranhao — Extraordinary  findings  of  the  Rio 
prize  court — Cochrane's  return  to  England — The  manner  in  which  he 
reimbursed  himself. 

WHILE  in  Rio  Harbor  Sir  W.  Sidney  Smith  de- 
termined to  celebrate  his  Britannic  Majesty's 
birthday  with  all  fitting  honors.  The  Lon- 
don, profusely  decorated  and  beflagged,  and  with  her 
quarterdeck  hung  with  the  royal  standards  of  England 
and  Portugal,  was  the  scene  of  an  elaborate  entertain- 
ment. Prince  Joao  honored  the  occasion  with  his  pres- 
ence, and  by  way  of  a  flattering  attention  that  part  of  the 
deck  reserved  for  him  was  covered  with  French  flags. 
So  that — whatever  those  ridiculous  Frenchmen  might  be 
doing  with  bis  country  in  Europe! — Joao  could  at  least 
enjoy  the  satisfaction  of  saying  that  he  had  stamped  on 
their  colors  in  Rio  Harbor! 

295 


296     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

In  the  course  of  the  toasts  at  the  subsequent  banquet 
the  prince  regent  set  himself  a  high  standard  in  the  way 
of  optimism  when  he  began  with:  "The  King  of  Eng- 
land !  May  he  live  till  time  shall  be  no  more ! ' '  There 
seems,  unfortunately,  to  exist  no  record  as  to  how  far 
this  graceful  feat  of  enthusiasm  was  rivaled  in  the  suc- 
ceeding toasts. 

When  the  entertainment  was  drawing  to  a  close  Joao 
performed  one  of  those  peculiarly  graceful  acts  of  which 
his  paradoxical  character  was  capable  from  time  to  time. 
It  was  the  hour  of  sunset,  and  the  flags  were  about  to  be 
lowered.  He  seized  the  opportunity  to  request  that  the 
Portuguese  standard  which  had  been  floating  on  the  Lon- 
don might  be  brought  to  him.  Six  seamen  bore  the  flag 
to  him,  and  he  commanded  that  it  should  be  laid  on  the 
deck.  Then  he  turned  to  the  Admiral,  and  addressed  a 
short  speech  to  him : 

"Admiral,  your  advices  which  I  received  by  despatch 
gave  me  information  that  Portugal  had  in  part  been  taken 
possession  of  by  the  French ;  such  intelligence  convinced 
me  I  was  betrayed ;  but  to  you.  Admiral,  I  and  my  family 
owe  our  liberty,  and  my  mother  her  crown  and  dignity. 
We  are  this  day  come  on  board  the  London  to  celebrate 
his  Britannic  Majesty's  birthday;  and  on  this  joyful  oc- 
casion my  royal  standard  has  had  the  honor  to  fly  at  the 
masthead  of  the  London  in  conjunction  with  that  of  Eng- 
land. It  now  lies  on  the  deck;  and  permit  me  to  return 
you  and  the  officers  thanks  for  all  the  services  which  you 
and  they  have  conferred  on  myself  and  family.  Accept 
this  standard  from  me,  and  from  henceforth  quarter  the 
arms  of  my  house  with  those  of  your  own :  it  will  remain 
a  memorial  for  your  posterity  that  your  exertions  pre- 
served us  from  falling  into  the  snare  which  Buonaparte 
had  laid  for  our  destruction." 

Whatever  Joao  may  have  lacked  in  dignity,  none  can 
deny  that  this  high  honor  to  the  British  admiral  was 
fittingly  and  royally  bestowed.    When  Sir  W.  Sidney 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  297 

Smith  left  the  Brazilian  station,  after  some  eighteen 
months  of  command  there,  it  was  as  a  Knight  Grand 
Cross  of  the  Order  of  the  Tower  and  Sword.  He  was 
succeeded  in  his  post  by  Admiral  de  Courcy. 

There  were  occasions,  of  course,  when  the  Brazilians 
had  an  opportunity  of  seeing  that  sea-power  is  not  a 
mere  matter  of  bunting,  awnings,  and  trim  uniforms, 
but  that  it  was  a  possession  for  which  the  greatest  price 
of  all  had  to  be  paid.  For  instance,  when  on  a  windy 
summer's  day  of  1812  the  Java  frigate  engaged  the 
superior  force  of  the  United  States  ship  Constitution,  and 
fought  on  until  she  was  little  more  than  a  heap  of  wreck- 
age on  the  water,  with  nearly  half  her  crew  out  of 
action,  when  no  option  remained  but  to  strike.  It  was 
shortly  after  this  that  the  astonished  inhabitants  of  Bahia 
saw  the  tragic  boat  come  ashore  which  held  the  gallant 
Captain  Lambert  of  the  Java,  who  died  in  a  hospital  from 
his  wounds  a  few  hours  later. 

As  we  are  now  back  again  on  the  warm  blue  waters 
of  the  Brazilian  coast  we  may  as  well  remain  there  until 
we  have  done  with  the  part  played  by  the  British  fleet 
in  the  early  days  of  royal  Brazil.  In  those  days,  as  has 
already  been  explained,  the  king  of  Portugal  was  scarcely 
ever  without  the  attendance  of  British  battleships  and 
frigates.  It  is  true  that,  on  the  exile  of  Napoleon  to 
Elba  the  regular  squadron  was  withdrawn  from  Eio,  and 
the  land  stores  sold,  but  the  subsequent  visits  of  the 
British  ships  continued  almost  without  intermission. 

In  1816  Lord  Beresford  appeared  in  the  harbor  of 
Rio  in  command  of  a  British  squadron  which  was  to 
convey  Joao  back  to  his  European  throne.  But  when 
it  came  to  the  point  of  actual  departure  the  vacillating 
king  demurred,  and  the  persuasions  of  neither  the  British 
ambassador  nor  of  Lord  Beresford  could  move  him  to 
embark. 

On  the  whole,  life  on  the  Brazilian  station  could  scarcely 
fail  to  be  languorous.    Those  of  the  officers  who  appre- 


298     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

ciated  landscape  had  their  fill  of  its  beauties.  There 
was  a  certain  amount  of  shore  entertaining,  shooting, 
and  deep-sea  fishing.  From  time  to  time  there  would 
occur  a  national  festivity  in  which  it  was  necessary  for 
the  ships  to  take  part,  when  the  ships'  guns  would  reply 
to  those  of  the  batteries,  when  the  bunting  afloat  would 
vie  with  the  elaborate  triumphal  arches  ashore,  and  when 
the  illuminations  at  night  would  prick  out  dazzling,  fairy 
ships  against  the  soft  and  dim  purple  of  the  tropical 
night.  On  these  occasions  such  North  Americans  as  were 
present  would  regard  with  rather  a  jaundiced  eye  such 
proceedings  in  honor  of  an  intrusive  royalty  on  the 
republican  soil  of  the  Americas.  According  to  Mr. 
Brackenbridge,  one  of  these  critical  spectators:  ''Kings 
are  very  slow  in  adopting  of  the  age  in  which  they  live. 
They  are  almost  as  hard  to  civilize  as  are  North  American 
Indians.  I  saw  a  great  many  of  the  nobles  running  to 
and  fro,  and  from  the  richness  of  their  decorations  I 
judged  of  very  high  orders,  such  as  gentlemen  of  the 
bedchamber,  grooms  of  the  stole,  and  royal  rat-killers. 
I  wish  I  could  speak  with  respect  of  these  things,  but  from 
my  soul  I  cannot."     This,  however,  is  by  the  way. 

There  was,  too,  that  rather  curious  institution,  the  new 
Eio  opera,  or  rather  ballet.  Since  this  was  one  of  the 
first  theaters  ever  erected  in  South  America,  it  would 
be  unfair  to  judge  it  severely.  Nevertheless,  the  varie- 
gated complexions  of  these  ladies  of  the  ballet,  sliding 
up  the  color  scale  from  deep  black  to  a  cafe-au-lait  tint, 
with  an  occasional  startling  fairer  flower  in  the  ranks, 
must  have  been  fully  appreciated  by  the  festal  inhabi- 
tants of  the  various  gunrooms  when  ashore  on  leave. 
Rio  of  the  early  nineteenth  century  was  not  the  Eio  of 
to-day ! 

Royalty  itself  in  Brazil  suffered  some  experiences 
which  would  have  occasioned  some  mild  horror  in  the 
European  society  of  that  period.  For  instance,  the  cap- 
tain of  a  British  mercantile  vessel  who  bore  tidings  from 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  299 

politically  disturbed  Portugal  was  admitted  to  the  pres- 
ence of  the  King  in  order  that  the  latter  might  learn 
the  news.  When  the  interview  was  over  Joao  VI  ex- 
tended his  hand  in  order  that  a  respectful  kiss  might 
be  pressed  upon  it.  But  the  honest  sailor,  who  under- 
stood nothing  of  such  civilities,  grasped  the  royal  hand 
in  his  own  (presumably)  tarry  fingers,  and  pumphandled 
it  with  painful  cordiality.  But  the  King,  though  shaken, 
accepted  the  catastrophe  in  a  philosophical  spirit !  When 
his  courtiers  would  have  intervened  he  bade  them  let  the 
strange  man  have  his  way. 

A  later  contretemps  of  a  somewhat  similar  order  is 
related  by  Messrs.  Kidder  and  Fletcher.  In  1852  a  fine 
new  United  States  passenger  steamer  was  on  its  voyage 
to  California  by  way  of  the  Straits  of  Magellan.  During 
this  vessel's  stay  at  Rio  de  Janeiro  the  Emperor  Pedro 
II  was  invited  on  board,  and  a  brilliant  reception  was 
prepared  for  him.  The  Emperor  and  Empress  arrived 
in  due  course,  accompanied  by  a  numerous  suite  in 
full  court  dress.  Bunting  waved ;  music  sounded ;  flowers 
glowed ;  the  Emperor  was  greatly  interested  in  the  vessel, 
and  the  visit  promised  to  be  an  unqualified  success. 
Judge,  therefore,  of  the  dismay  of  the  American  charge 
d'affaires  and  the  City  of  Pittsburg's  captain,  when  the 
Emperor  insisted  on  inspecting  the  forward  deck,  where 
reclined  a  host  of  perfectly  unpolished  steerage  passen- 
gers who  were  on  their  way  to  the  gold-fields.  The  re- 
mainder of  the  scene  is  best  described  in  the  author's 
own  words: 

'*The  Emperor's  attention,  however,  could  not  be  di- 
verted to  a  different  point ;  and  the  Captain,  fearing  and 
trembling,  was  led  to  the  forward-deck.  There,  upon  the 
taffrail,  sat  representatives  of  the  New  York  *Mose,'  the 
Philadelphia  'Killer,'  and  the  Baltimore  'Plug-Ugly.' 
The  Captain's  heart  sank  within  him:  he  was  proud  of 
his  ship,  proud  of  his  illustrious  guest,  but  he  had  very 
little  to  be  proud  of  in  some  of  his  passengers — espe- 


300     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

cially  the  unkempt  and  unterrified,  who  were  even  more 
picturesque  after  their  voyage  than  upon  election-day. 
The  Emperor  now  approached  the  sovereigns — ay,  near 
enough  to  have  them  '  betwixt  the  wind  and  his  nobility. ' 
Then  occurred  a  scene,  rich  beyond  description,  which 
could  never  have  taken  place  with  others  than  Americans 
for  actors.  One  of  the  unshaven,  whose  tobacco  had,  up 
to  this  time,  occupied  the  greater  portion  of  his  mouth 
and  thoughts,  suddenly  tumbled  from  the  taffrail,  dis- 
charged his  quid  into  the  ocean,  and,  hat  in  hand,  yelled 
forth  in  a  well  meaning  but  terrific  voice,  'Boys,  three 
cheers  for  the  Emperor  of  the  Brazils ! '  In  a  twinkle  of 
an  eye  every  Calif ornian  was  upon  his  feet;  and  never, 
in  their  oft-fought  battles  for  the  *  glorious  Democracy,* 
did  they  send  forth  such  round  and  hearty  huzzas  as  they 
did  that  day  to  D.  Pedro  II.  The  suddenness,  the  ear- 
nestness, the  good  intention,  and  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
whole  procedure  were  most  mirth-provoking.  The  Cap- 
tain's fears  subsided:  his  pons  asinorum  was  crossed, 
and  he  took  breath  and  laughed  freely.  The  Emperor 
returned  the  impromptu  salute  with  great  respect,  and 
for  the  occasion,  with  becoming  gravity." 

As  the  internal  politics  of  Brazil  tended  to  grow  more 
involved,  the  situation  of  the  British  naval  commanders 
naturally  became  proportionately  difficult,  more  espe- 
cially when  some  of  the  provinces  began  to  rebel  against 
the  central  power  at  Eio  de  Janeiro,  and  when  the  Bra- 
zilians were  occupied  in  severing  the  ties  which  bound 
them  to  Portugal.  A  short  digression  is  necessary  in 
order  to  explain  the  general  situation  which  prevailed 
at  that  time. 

In  the  early  years  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  Spanish 
and  Portuguese  South  American  colonies  were  respec- 
tively undergoing  very  different  species  of  metamorpho- 
sis. Those  of  Spain  were  occupied  in  transferring  them- 
selves into  republics,  while  the  great  country  of  Brazil  was 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  301 

learning  to  be  a  kingdom.  At  this  period  British  sym- 
pathies were,  by  force  of  circumstances,  rather  curiously 
distributed.  In  Spanish  South  America  their  leanings 
toward  the  patriot  cause  were  sufficiently  patent — not- 
withstanding a  rigid  neutrality  of  action — to  cause  con- 
siderable irritation  among  the  remnants  of  the  Spanish 
power  in  Peru. 

In  Brazil,  on  the  other  hand,  when  friction  arose  be- 
tween the  new  kingdom  and  the  mother  country,  the 
Brazilians  were  wont  to  complain  that  the  attitude  of  the 
British  was  unduly  favorable  toward  the  Portuguese. 
Here  again,  there  seem  to  have  been  no  actual  grounds 
for  complaint.  At  the  same  time,  apart  from  any  side- 
issue  of  sentiment  or  policy,  it  is  only  natural  that  the 
sympathies  of  the  British  fleet  should  have  lain  with 
our  most  ancient  ally — and  this  notwithstanding  the  work 
which  Cochrane  had  achieved. 

This  sense  of  grievance,  however,  had  by  no  means 
departed  when  an  international  incident  made  it  neces- 
sary for  the  British  fleet  to  blockade  Rio  Harbor.  The 
presence  of  the  men  of  war  on  this  stern  mission  caused 
no  little  indignation. 

*'We  must  seize  all  your  ships  in  our  harbor,"  ob- 
served an  indignant  inhabitant  of  Rio  to  Walsh,  "con- 
fiscate all  your  property  in  the  country,  and  fit  out  your 
merchantmen  as  privateers  to  cruise  against  your  com- 
merce in  other  places." 

These  frank  views  are  at  all  events  instructive  as  to 
the  contemporary  Brazilian  idea  of  the  relative  naval 
forces  of  Brazil  and  Great  Britain ! 

Indeed,  the  post  of  a  British  commander  on  the  Bra- 
zilian station  in  the  first  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury called  for  no  little  tact.  This  was  most  of  all  the 
case  in  the  North,  where  the  ordinary  complications  were 
added  to  by  the  periodical  rebellions  against  the  central 
authority  of  Rio  de  Janeiro.    In  the  course  of  such  actual 


302     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

warfare  questions  were  continually  cropping  up  con- 
cerning the  protection  of  the  British  residents,  many  of 
whom  enrolled  themselves  in  a  cavalry  corps. 

An  instance  of  this  occurred  in  1824  at  Maranhao  when 
the  house  of  a  Mr.  Hesketh,  an  English  merchant,  was 
forcibly  entered  by  the  local  authorities.  As  a  hint  con- 
cerning the  unwisdom  of  such  procedure,  his  Majesty's 
sloop  of  war  Eclair,  which  happened  to  be  at  the  port, 
shifted  her  berth  so  as  to  approach  the  shore  and  con- 
trol the  place  with  her  guns.  In  the  meantime  an  apology 
was  obtained  from  the  local  rebel  authorities  for  the 
occurrence.  But  the  Junta  felt  itself  outraged  at  the 
action  of  the  British,  and  seriously  debated  as  to  whether 
it  should  not  confiscate  the  Eclair 's  rudder  in  punish- 
ment of  this  too  close  and  too  unceremonious  an  ap- 
proach !  The  discussion,  however,  does  not  seem  to  have 
touched  on  the  topic  concerning  the  ways  and  means  by 
which  this  was  to  have  been  etfected. 

A  few  months  later  Captain  Johnstone  of  the  Eclair, 
now  in  command  of  the  42-gun  frigate  Doris,  found  him- 
self off  rebellious  Pernambuco  when  that  port  was  being 
blockaded  by  a  squadron  from  Rio  de  Janeiro.  Here  he 
found  it  necessary  to  take  strong  steps  to  prevent  a  repe- 
tition of  a  formal  but  groundless  accusation  to  the  effect 
that  he  had  been  supplying  the  royal  vessels  with  pro- 
visions. Seeing  that  his  categorical  denial  was  received 
in  an  unsatisfactory  fashion,  he  decided  that  the  most 
efficient  retort  would  be  one  which  affected  the  pockets 
of  his  detractors.  So  he  "up  with  his  anchor"  and  sailed 
to  Bahia  to  complete  the  provisioning  of  his  frigate,  thus 
depriving  the  inhabitants  of  Pernambuco  of  the  transac- 
tion and  its  profit! 

We  may  conclude  this  naval  section  with  the  adven- 
tures of  Lord  Cochrane,  who  arrived  in  March,  1823,  to 
take  charge  of  the  scanty  fleet  of  the  newly  constituted 
Brazilian  Empire  in  its  struggle  against  the  superior 
squadrons  of  the  now  hostile  Portuguese. 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  303 

Cochrane  threw  himself  with  his  accustomed  energy 
into  the  task  of  building  up  an  efficient  fleet.  A  number 
of  trading  vessels  were  converted  into  warships,  and 
the  Rio  dockyards  awoke  to  the  sound  of  hammerings. 
Cochrane 's  present  task  was  infinitely  more  difficult  than 
the  one  he  had  just  completed.  As  commander-in-chief 
of  the  Chilean  navy,  he  had  often  had  to  put  up  with 
makeshifts  in  the  way  of  vessels  and  equipment;  but  he 
had  invariably  found  himself  supported  by  single-minded, 
enthusiastic,  and  heroic  crews. 

In  Brazil  he  found  himself  at  least  as  well  off  in  vessels. 
It  was  when  the  question  of  recruiting  crews  came  about 
that  the  chief  difficulties  arose.  The  Brazilians  not  hav- 
ing yet  learned  to  take  an  interest  in  their  seas — or  any 
one  else's! — Cochrane  had  to  depend  for  the  manning  of 
his  marine  upon  such  chance  element  as  he  could  light 
on.  Once  afloat,  the  sympathies  of  many  of  these  seemed, 
at  the  very  least,  to  lie  as  much  with  the  Portuguese 
as  with  the  Brazilians — a  condition  of  disinterestedness 
by  no  means  laudable  in  a  fighting  force ! 

From  the  start  the  adventurous  admiral  had  a  good 
deal  of  trouble  even  with  such  crews  as  he  possessed. 
A  number  of  these  were  entirely  unwilling  to  come  to 
blows  with  the  Portuguese,  and  in  several  cases — notably 
one  in  which  an  attempt  was  made  to  prevent  the  bring- 
ing up  of  ammunition  to  the  deck  during  an  action 
— certain  of  the  dissatisfied  elements  made  no  attempt 
to  conceal  the  direction  in  which  their  sympathies  really 
lay. 

In  the  end  Lord  Cochrane 's  resolute  character  pre- 
vailed, and  he  obtained  as  much  control  as  it  was  pos- 
sible to  assume  over  his  heterogeneous  crews.  Then, 
pursuing  his  usual  energetic  policy,  he  prepared  himself 
for  the  attack.  His  first  object  was  the  port  of  Bahia 
to  the  north,  where  the  Portuguese  naval  and  military 
headquarters  were  now  situated.  For  this  purpose  he 
assembled  a  fleet  consisting  of  the  Pedro  Primeiro,  an 


304     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

80-gun  ship,  ten  lesser  vessels,  and  four  armed  mer- 
chantmen. 

As  Cochrane  lay  in  the  bay  of  Rio  de  Janeiro  on  the 
eve  of  his  departure  it  happened  that  H.M.S.  Tartar  was 
at  anchor  there  too.  Conunander  James,  who  was  on 
board  the  British  ship  as  a  junior  officer  at  the  time, 
describes  the  appearance  of  the  tall,  red-haired  Coch- 
rane as  he  came  over  the  side  to  pay  a  visit,  accompanied 
by  his  flag-captain,  Crosby. 

Those  who  are  curious  concerning  Cochrane 's  uniform 
when  in  the  Brazilian  service  may  like  to  know  that  his 
surtout  coat  was  surmounted  by  an  embroidered  collar 
and  a  pair  of  large  epaulettes  that  supported  silver  stars. 
Over  his  right  shoulder  hung  a  broad,  light-blue  sash, 
while  on  his  head  was  a  gold-laced,  cocked  hat  with  a 
large  cockade,  and  at  his  side  he  wore  a  strong  and 
serviceable  sword. 

I  have  already  alluded  to  the  great  difficulty  which 
Lord  Cochrane  was  experiencing  at  the  time  in  obtaining 
efficient  crews.  Some  of  the  methods  which  he,  or  his 
subordinates,  employed  in  the  endeavor  to  overcome  this 
appear  to  have  earned  for  him  the  resentment  of  his 
fellow  countrymen.  That  this  was  not  unjustified,  may 
be  gathered  from  Commander  James's  remarks.  The 
date  of  the  episode  was  the  1st  of  April,  1823 : 

**Lord  Cochrane  had  boats  cruising  round  the  ship 
last  night,  and  no  doubt  all  over  the  harbor,  to  entice 
the  men  to  run.  We  observed  one  several  times  pass 
this  ship;  and  observing  one  coming  we  lowered  a  boat 
and  examined  him.  At  the  same  time  we  caught  one 
of  our  men  on  the  cue  of  going  overboard.  The  fellow 
said  he  was  going  to  join  Lord  C.  as  his  surgeon  to-mor- 
row, and  made  up  a  poor  story.  The  lieutenant  who 
went  in  the  boat  told  him  that  if  he  caught  him  enticing 
any  of  the  men  away  he  would  shoot  him  and  Lord  C. 
too.  Our  sentries,  loaded  with  ball,  have  orders  to  fire 
at  any  one  they  might  see  swimming  from  us.    If  Lord 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  305 

C.  really  employed  the  boats,  it  shows  him  to  be  a  mean 
fellow,  as  Captain  Brown  observed." 

No  doubt  the  infinite  resource  of  such  strong  charac- 
ters as  that  of  Cochrane  does  not  always  add  to  the 
welfare  or  ease  of  mind  of  their  neighbors ! 

At  Bahia  a  few  skirmishes  took  place,  after  which  the 
Portuguese  fleet  took  refuge  under  the  guns  of  the  forts. 
Bahia  was  now  declared  in  a  state  of  siege,  and  soon 
afterwards  some  fresh  British  oflScers  and  men  arrived  to 
assist  Cochrane  in  his  task.  Of  these  officers  the  most 
notable  were  Captains  Grenfell  and  Taylor. 

Bahia  was  now  closely  invested  from  the  land  side  as 
well  as  from  the  sea.  Eventually  the  Brazilians  attacked 
the  place  from  the  land  side  and  entered  the  city,  while 
the  Portuguese  abandoned  the  spot,  and  their  great  fleet 
of  seventy  men-of-war,  transports,  and  merchantmen 
stood  out  for  the  open  sea.  Cochrane  permitted  the 
armada  to  pass,  and  then  pursued  it  relentlessly,  cutting 
out  prizes  daily  from  the  hapless  fleet  as  it  went  on  its 
northward  flight,  until  the  might  of  Portugal  became  a 
thing  of  the  past  in  Brazil.  Indeed,  so  persistent  was 
Captain  Taylor  in  his  attendance  on  the  fleeing  vessels 
that,  capturing  a  prize  from  time  to  time,  he  pursued 
them  to  the  very  mouth  of  the  Tagus. 

In  the  meantime  some  serious  outbreaks  occurred  at 
Para,  where  numbers  of  Brazilian  soldiers  got  out  of 
hand,  and,  breaking  out  into  open  rioting,  endeavored  to 
take  advantage  of  the  political  situation.  Having  taken 
possession  of  the  forts  and  barracks  and  military  stores, 
they  armed  all  those  who  would  join  them.  Then,  under 
cover  of  shouts  of  ''Death  to  the  Europeans!  Long  live 
independence  and  the  Emperor  Pedro!"  they  made  for 
the  palace  of  the  governor,  whom  they  deposed,  and 
elected  one  of  their  own  companions  in  his  stead. 

Gangs  of  these  ruffians  then  filled  the  streets  in  a 
determined  search  for  the  plunder  which  was  their  real 
object.     They  kept  possession  of  the  town  for  two  days, 


306     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

when  a  naval  contingent,  under  Captain  Grenfell  of  Lord 
Cochrane 's  squadron,  appeared  on  the  scene.  An  en- 
counter ended  in  the  defeat  of  the  rioters,  of  whom  large 
numbers  were  captured.  The  next  day  Captain  Gren- 
fell armed  the  inhabitants  and  dragged  into  the  town 
eight  pieces  of  artillery,  manned  by  the  Englishmen. 
The  rebellious  soldiers  were  ordered  to  lay  down  their 
arms  and  surrender,  which  at  the  sight  of  the  cannon 
they  did.  They  were  then  marched  in  two  columns  to 
the  palace  square,  headed  and  flanked  by  volunteers,  the 
artillery,  and  marines. 

Arrived  at  the  square,  they  were  arranged  in  columns, 
and  the  artillery  had  orders  to  fire  should  the  prisoners 
resist  the  sentence  passed.  A  body  of  cavalry,  forty  or 
fifty  strong,  who  had  not  yet  surrendered,  galloped  up 
at  this  moment,  with  the  intention  of  charging  and  throw- 
ing the  infantry  into  confusion.  But  when  they  saw  the 
gunners  drawn  up,  and  the  pieces  in  readiness  to  be 
discharged,  they  wavered,  halted,  and  then  laid  down 
their  arms. 

There  were  now  five  hundred  disarmed  men  on  the 
field.  The  rebellious  soldiery  were  completely  overawed, 
and  everything  was  as  still  as  death.  A  council  of  war 
and  a  court-martial  followed.  Stern  measures  were  de- 
cided on,  and  five  of  the  ringleaders  were  sentenced  to 
be  executed  on  the  spot. 

These  latter  at  first  refused  to  take  the  affair  seriously, 
and  there  were  many  who  held  the  trial  to  be  a  mock 
one,  but  they  were  soon  disillusioned  and  profound  dis- 
may took  the  place  of  incredulity.  When  the  time  given 
them  to  prepare  themselves  for  death  had  expired,  the 
five  were  led  to  the  front  and  executed  before  the  assem- 
bled people.  Decidedly  this  first  stern  act  of  justice  of 
independent  Brazil  would  never  have  been  enacted  under 
the  nervous  rule  of  Joao  VI,  who  could  never  bear  to 
sign  the  death  warrant  of  a  man,  however  criminal  his 
deed! 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  307 

About  two  hundred  and  fifty  of  the  prisoners  were 
now  sent  on  board  a  prize  ship  that  was  lying  in  the 
harbor.  Then  occurred  a  terrible,  and  in  many  respects 
inexplicable,  thing.  During  the  first  night  of  their  con- 
finement it  is  said  that  the  sentry  heard  a  great  noise 
from  the  quarters  where  the  prisoners  were  lodged.  He 
ordered  them  to  be  quiet,  but  his  voice  was  disregarded 
and  the  uproar  continued.  Moreover,  it  appeared  that 
they  were  trying  to  force  the  hatches  under  which  they 
had  been  battened  down.  In  order  to  intimidate  these 
prisoners,  the  sentry  fired  a  shot  or  two,  and  in  a  short 
time  all  became  quiet. 

The  next  morning  on  opening  the  hatches  it  was  found 
that  only  four  were  alive  of  the  two  hundred  and  fifty, 
and  that  the  dead  were  mutilated  in  the  most  horrible 
way! 

A  good  deal  of  mystery  seems  to  surround  this  affair. 
One  very  improbable  account  runs  to  the  effect  that  the 
unfortunate  men  went  suddenly  mad  and  killed  each 
other  in  their  delirium.  Another  relates  that  the  Bra- 
zilians wished  to  murder  some  Portuguese  prisoners  who 
were  with  them,  but  had  killed  their  own  countrymen,  it 
being  too  dark  to  distinguish  one  from  the  other  clearly, 
and  that  this  had  led  to  a  general  battle.  It  is  obvious 
that  much  has  remained  untold,  since  it  is  hardly  con- 
ceivable that  out  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  combatants 
every  man,  with  the  exception  of  four,  should  have  suc- 
ceeded in  killing  the  other!  Yet,  according  to  these 
accounts,  this  must  have  occurred,  since  it  is  said  that 
the  four  survivors  owed  their  safety  to  having  hidden 
under  some  water  casks  all  the  time.  The  most  probable 
explanation  is  that,  by  reason  of  some  carelessness  in 
the  arrangements  of  the  ventilation,  the  poor  wretches 
perished  from  suffocation. 

That  gallant  stormy  petrel.  Lord  Cochrane,  was  des- 
tined to  find — as  is  frequently  the  lot  of  sailors  and  sol- 
diers— that  his  material  rewards  in  Brazil  were  not  alto- 


308     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

gether  commensurate  with  the  warmth  of  his  reception 
or  even  with  the  honors  conferred  on  him.  The  Emperor 
undoubtedly  felt  a  warm  admiration  for  the  Admiral's 
feats,  and  created  him  Marquis  of  Maranhao.  Even  this 
honor,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  proved  a  bone  of  contention; 
for  a  prominent  statesman,  Antonio  Carlos  Andrada,  now 
challenged  the  sovereign's  right  to  confer  this  honor 
without  the  sanction  of  the  House  of  Deputies,  remarking 
that  "nobility  unaccompanied  by  any  corresponding 
power  was  an  institution  of  which  he  would  not  compre- 
hend the  object." 

In  Cochrane 's  case  the  shaft  of  this  saying  certainly 
went  very  wide  of  the  mark.  It  is  true  that  there  were 
in  existence  just  then  large  numbers  of  Brazilians  re- 
cently ennobled  for  reasons  which  were  entirely  uncon- 
nected with  any  personal  merit  or  achievements.  But 
this  could  scarcely  be  said  of  the  man  upon  whose  strength 
the  empire  was  relying  for  its  freedom! 

As  might  have  been  expected,  the  crisis  in  the  affairs 
of  Lord  Cochrane  and  his  British  officers  arrived  when 
the  question  of  prize  ships  and  prize  money  came  to  be 
taken  into  consideration.  Cochrane  waited  patiently — 
for  him! — while  his  fleet  of  prizes  threatened  to  rot  in 
the  waters  of  Rio  de  Janeiro  Harbor.  At  the  best  of 
times  Pedro  was  temperamentally  averse  to  parting  with 
cash  or  with  goods  of  any  description.  In  the  present 
circumstances,  moreover,  the  enthusiasm  attending  the 
captures  had  largely  evaporated. 

Finding  himself  now  securely  seated  on  the  Brazilian 
throne,  it  had  become  Pedro's  policy  to  conciliate  Portu- 
gal rather  than  to  annoy  the  mother  country.  It  was 
just  at  this  period  that  it  was  becoming  noticeable  that 
his  sympathies  were  veering  round  toward  the  Euro- 
pean kingdom.  A  prize  court  was  formed.  The  degree 
of  good  faith  in  which  this  body  was  disposed  to  act 
will  be  understood  when  it  is  explained  that  the  majority 
of  the  members  were  Portuguese  by  birth ! 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  309 

That  the  findings  of  this  court  went  against  every  one 
of  the  undeniable  claims  of  Cochrane  and  his  captains, 
goes  without  saying.  But  the  proceedings  went  far  be- 
yond this,  and  became  purely  Gilbertian.  It  was  only 
a  short  while  before  that  the  Emperor  had  created  Lord 
Cochrane  Marquis  of  Maranhao  on  account  of  his  naval 
victories.  For  having  assisted  in  this  campaign,  and  for 
having  chased  the  Portuguese  fleet  to  the  Tagus  and  for 
having  captured  several  of  its  vessels,  the  new  prize 
court  condemned  Admiral  Taylor  to  six  months'  im- 
prisonment and  to  the  forfeiture  of  double  the  amount 
of  prize  money  he  claimed!  Truly,  without  intending 
any  meretricious  pun,  it  might  be  said  that  this  remark- 
able body  constituted  a  surprise,  rather  than  a  prize, 
court ! 

Neither  Cochrane  nor  his  British  officers  had  ever 
proved  themselves  men  of  a  type  to  sit  down  quietly  un- 
der wrongs  such  as  these.  The  Admiral,  as  it  happened, 
had  some  fairly  weighty  cards  up  his  sleeve,  and  he 
found  it  the  best  policy  to  advertise  the  fact  that  he 
intended  to  keep  them  there.  He  accordingly  announced 
his  intention  of  retaining  the  specie  captured  in  the  course 
of  the  blockade  of  Bahia,  as  well  as  some  ransoms  ob- 
tained at  Maranliao.  Pedro  himself  now  made  a  shrewd 
move.  During  a  short  absence  of  the  Captain,  his  im- 
perial Majesty  in  person  boarded  Grenf ell's  ship,  and 
departed  in  some  haste  and  considerable  elation,  having 
collected  from  the  vessel  a  large  sum  of  money  obtained 
as  ransoms  for  prizes  at  Para,  which  Grenfell  had  in 
the  circumstances  intended  as  recompense  for  himself 
and  his  crew. 

The  fiery  Cochrane 's  rage  at  this  treatment  may  be 
imagined.  His  exasperation  was  not  decreased  by  the 
grumblings  of  his  British  subordinates.  Nevertheless  the 
Brazilians  continued  to  avoid  a  payment  in  full  of  the 
sailors'  claims.  It  was  not  until  the  outbreak  of  a  serious 
revolution  at  Pernambuco  that  the  authorities  proved 


310     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

themselves  in  the  least  amenable  to  reason.  Then,  see- 
ing that  the  rebels  had  managed  to  get  together  a  small 
fleet  of  their  own,  the  value  of  the  foreign  seamen  and  the 
justice  of  their  claims  at  once  became  evident.  A  sum 
of  money  was  collected  and  part  of  the  arrears  were 
liquidated,  after  which  Lord  Cochrane  and  his  officers 
sailed  to  Pernambuco  and  proceeded  to  blockade  the  town. 

On  this  occasion  Cochrane  decided  to  run  no  financial 
risks.  Having  restored  order  out  of  chaos  at  Pernam- 
buco, his  actions  showed  themselves  devoid  of  red  tape 
to  a  rather  startling  degree.  He  coromandeered  such 
prize  money  as  he  thought  adequate  for  himself  and  his 
crew,  and  then  in  his  flagship  the  Piranga  he  sailed 
straight  home  to  Plymouth,  where  he  received  a  warm 
welcome.  The  proceeding  was,  to  say  the  least  of  it, 
irregular;  but  it  served  the  Admiral's  purpose. 

Cochrane  arrived  in  England  in  the  early  summer  of 
1825.  His  original  engagement  had  been  to  serve  Brazil 
until  her  independence  had  been  acknowledged  by  Portu- 
gal. This  did  not  occur  until  August,  some  three  months 
later;  so  Cochrane  left  his  Brazilian  flag  flying  during 
the  interval.  He  was  still  ready  to  be  called  upon,  he 
explained.  Doubtless  he  was;  but  the  distance  between 
him  and  Brazil  was  considerable.  In  the  meanwhile  the 
prize  money  remained  his  own  and  his  crews ',  to  the  un- 
bounded wrath  of  Pedro. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE    BEITISH    IN    BRAZIL    (ill) 

Royalty  in  Brazil — Some  stringent  regulations  concerning  etiquette — Com- 
pulsory salutations — A  collection  of  ludicrous  incidents — Behavior  of 
Dom  Pedro — Episode  related  by  Mr.  H.  M.  Brackenridge — A  meeting 
with  the  royal  family — The  Queen  of  Portugal  and  the  United  States 
Minister — A  triumphant  collision  with  autocracy — Violence  of  the 
Queen — Mr.  Sumpter's  resolution  and  its  results — Intervention  of  King 
Joao  VI — Curious  ceremonies  at  Bahia  and  Pernambuco — Privileged 
Lisbon  beggars — Fortunate  recipients  of  free  passages  on  men-of-war 
— The  voyage  of  the  warship  Dom  Joao  VI — A  British  merchant's 
abode  in  Rio — His  work  and  amusements — Opening  of  the  Exchange 
— An  early  Tragedy — The  trade  in  Bacalhao — Coinage  and  its  by-prod- 
ucts— The  British  shop-keepers  and  their  Brazilian  colleagues — Re- 
spective qualities  of  the  two — Ephemeral  existence  of  the  first  news- 
paper— Private  theatricals,  ashore  and  afloat — Public-houses  in  Rio — 
Prejudice  against  mutton  in  Brazil — Dinner  given  with  the  object  of 
destroying  this — Hospitality  of  the  Fazendeiro — Local  reputation  of 
the  British  for  insobriety — Establishments  of  the  interior — An  expe- 
rience in  a  primitive  household — Mr.  Mawe's  journey  to  the  Diamond 
Mines — A  negro  and  his  supposed  gem — Eventual  disappointment — 
Mawe's  experience  at  Barbacena — The  ubiquity  of  British  manu- 
factures. 

LET  US  now  perform  a  feat  possible  only  in  print, 
and  turn  back  a  few  years  to  the  early  events  of 
this  tropical  court  which  the  British  navy  had 
been  instrumental  in  creating. 

The  transference  of  this  court  was  followed  by  some 
local  results  which  the  contemporary  students  of  the 
Portuguese  character  could  scarcely  have  foreseen. 
Perhaps  it  was  the  collision  of  royalty  with  the  es- 
sentially democratic  atmosphere  of  the  Americas  that 
brought  about  a  number  of  explosions  of  a  nature  foreign 
both  to  the  Brazilian  soil  and  to  the  kindly  Portuguese 
temperament ! 

311 


312     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

It  was  undoubtedly  part  of  the  old  colonial  policy 
which  caused  the  regulations  for  the  exhibition  of  ex- 
ternal respect  toward  the  royal  family  to  be  arbitrary 
and  oppressive  to  a  degree  unheard  of  in  Europe.  The 
ethics  of  the  street  were  included  in  these.  When  the 
royal  family  took  its  airings  abroad  it  was  the  aim  of 
the  authorities  to  make  the  progress  one  of  tremendous 
glamour  and  dignity.  At  the  passage  of  a  royal  per- 
sonage humanity  was  commanded  to  fall  as  prone  as 
autumn  leaves!  As  a  result,  the  inhabitants  of  Rio 
found  themselves,  whether  they  would  or  no — in  the 
early  days  their  enthusiasm  was  genuine  enough — com- 
mitted to  perfect  debauche  of  obeisance. 

In  actual  practice,  these  regulations  were  made  to 
apply  to  foreigners  as  well  as  to  Portuguese  and  Bra- 
zilians, notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  King  had  de- 
clared publicly  that  he  did  not  require  it  of  any  who 
were  not  his  subjects.  In  spite  of  this,  whenever  a  for- 
eigner or  native  chanced  to  meet  any  members  of  the 
royal  family,  he  was  obliged,  if  mounted,  to  dismount 
from  his  horse,  and,  if  in  a  carriage,  to  alight  with  all 
speed.  The  ''Times"  of  November,  1818,  has  some  inter- 
esting comments  on  this  peculiar  state  of  affairs: 

'  *  Woe  to  him  who  is  not  able  to  do  this  quickly  enough, 
for  he  will  be  dreadfully  chastised  by  the  ser\^ants  who 
accompany  him.  It  happened  very  lately  that  two  mer- 
chants, the  chief  partners  of  a  foreign  establishment 
here,  on  meeting  some  of  the  royal  princes,  and  relying 
on  the  ordinance  of  the  King,  did  not  dismount  from 
their  horses ;  one  of  them,  by  the  command  of  the  young- 
est, a  boy  of  fourteen,  was  severely  beaten  by  a  groom, 
and  the  other,  a  man  of  fifty,  received  from  the  Crown 
Prince  himself,  a  blow  from  his  whip." 

This  reveals  a  condition  of  affairs,  where  dignity  would 
seem  to  rest  with  the  assaulted  rather  than  with  the 
assailants,  and  certainly  the  transplanting  of  royalty 
seems  to  have  had  curious  and  exotic  results,  for  the 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  313 

journal  goes  on  with  the  still  more  astonishing  state- 
ment to  the  effect  that:  ''This  same  Crown  Prince  on 
another  occasion  did  not  consider  it  beneath  his  dignity 
to  throw  a  stone  at  a  foreigner,  who,  not  knowing  him, 
happened  not  to  have  taken  off  his  hat !" 

Those  who  have  followed  Dom  Pedro's  later  career, 
with  all  its  attributes  of  personal  valor  and  unconscious 
buffoonery,  resolution,  and  ridiculous  want  of  humor,  will 
experience  less  surprise  in  reading  this  than  they  would 
if  the  anecdote  concerned  a  more  ordinary  prince.  With 
such  extraordinary  evidences  of  a  want  of  discipline  in 
his  youth,  the  wilder  days  of  Pedro's  subsequent  life 
become  explicable. 

An  American  writer,  Mr.  H.  M.  Brackenridge,  has 
already  been  quoted.  He  was  traveling  to  Rio  de  Janeiro 
on  a  mission  from  his  Government  in  1817,  and  on  his 
first  landing  came  into  contact  with  Brazilian  royalty. 
He  describes  his  experiences  with  some  satire.  He  was 
at  the  house  of  the  United  States  minister,  Mr.  Sumpter, 
when  he  saw  a  cavalcade  going  down  the  road.  A  couple 
of  dusk}^  dragoons,  whose  faces  showed  traces  of  their 
Indian  blood,  galloped  by,  their  swords  rattling  gallantly 
by  their  sides.  These  were  followed  at  a  considerable 
distance  by  a  number  of  cumbrous  and  old-fashioned 
coaches.  They  contained  the  Queen,  the  princesses,  and 
their  suite. 

The  procession  came  to  a  halt  at  the  gate  of  the  Ameri- 
can minister,  and  there  the  Queen  and  the  princesses 
spoke  in  a  familiar  and  friendly  fashion  with  Miss  Sump- 
ter. But  for  their  guard  and  retinue,  Brackenridge  says 
he  ''would  have  taken  them  to  be  the  respectable  class  of 
citizens,"  Avhich  was  no  small  concession  from  a  traveler 
of  his  democratic  caliber!  In  fact,  our  thorough-going 
republican  confesses  himself  not  unimpressed  by  the 
modest  attire  and  behavior  of  these  first  royalties  witli 
which  he  was  brought  into  contact. 

"Although,"  he  says,  "I  had  read  a  great  deal  of 


314     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

kings  and  queens  and  princesses,  I  had  no  idea  that  I 
should  feel  so  little  of  that  awe  supposed  to  be  pro- 
duced by  the  irradiations  of  majesty." 

Thus  our  chronicler — a  very  loyal  and  estimable  re- 
publican, but  faintly  inclined  to  be  intolerant — pats  with 
some  warmth  the  back  that  found  so  little  trouble  in 
remaining  stiff  and  erect.  This  should  not  have  been 
difficult,  since,  with  the  exception  of  the  Queen's  person- 
ality, there  was  very  little  formality  about  the  party. 
The  Princess  Leopoldina,  he  says,  was  distinguished 
from  the  rest  by  the  fairness  of  her  complexion.  He 
adds,  however,  that  there  was  nothing  remarkable  in  her 
appearance,  and  that  there  were  thousands  of  his  coun- 
trywomen that  he  would  choose  in  preference  for  a 
wife,  which  confession  seems  to  betray  a  leaning  toward 
Mormonism ! 

It  was,  of  course,  a  terribly  servile  manner  of  obeisance 
shown  by  the  inhabitants — both  civil  and  military — of 
Rio  when  in  the  early  days  of  the  kingdom  they  fell 
on  their  knees  in  the  roadway  at  the  sight  of  their  sov- 
ereigns. But,  at  the  very  least,  the  guards  who  accom- 
panied the  royal  cortege  would  compel  riders  to  dismount 
and  to  stand  bareheaded.  This  crude  method,  as  we 
have  seen,  was  occasionally  applied  to  foreigners,  and, 
apparently,  passed  unresented  in  the  majority  of  in- 
stances. It  is  even  said  that  a  number  of  the  foreign 
ministers  submitted  to  this — a  most  remarkable  and  quite 
inexplicable  concession.  But  the  American  representa- 
tive was  most  decidedly  not  one  of  these. 

This  latter,  Mr.  Sumpter,  was  determined  to  use  every 
diplomatic  means  to  preserve  his  dignity.  He  took  every 
precaution  to  avoid  meeting  the  royal  cavalcade  in  the 
street.  He  was  successful  for  a  considerable  time;  but 
at  last  the  day  came  when  he  found  himself  face  to  face 
with  the  cumbersome  coaches  and  the  outriding  dragoons. 
It  was  the  Queen  who  chanced  to  be  taking  an  outing. 
Sumpter  realized  that  the  ordeal  could  no  longer  be 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  315 

avoided!  Anxious  to  comply  as  much  as  possible  with 
courtesy,  the  American  minister  halted  his  horse  and 
saluted  her  Majesty.  But  this  did  not  satisfy  the  Queen. 
With  an  imperious  gesture  she  commanded  her  guards 
to  compel  him  to  dismount.  This,  let  it  be  remembered, 
was  the  act  of  a  sovereign  toward  a  representative  of 
a  foreign  and  friendly  power! 

The  dragoons  advanced,  and,  seeing  that  Mr.  Sumpter 
made  no  attempt  to  obey  their  shouts,  they  closed  in 
upon  him,  brandishing  their  swords.  The  American  min- 
ister stood  prepared  to  defend  himself  with  his  stick, 
and  this  determined  attitude  was  sufficient  for  the  appe- 
tite of  the  tawdry-uniformed,  but  cautious  dragoons,  who 
retreated  to  the  shelter  of  her  Majesty's  carriage:  while 
her  Majesty,  for  her  part,  continued  her  way  in  a  huff. 

Immediately  after  this  incident  one  of  the  Portuguese 
ministry  called  on  Mr.  Sumpter,  and  implored  him  to 
consider  the  effect  his  example  would  have  on  the  other 
foreign  ministers,  who  for  their  part  might  refuse  to 
dismount  and  pay  obeisance  to  the  Queen!  In  view  of 
this  extraordinary  plea  it  is  evident  that  the  ministers' 
plenipotentiary  were  considered  rather  in  the  light  of 
school  children  liable  to  mischief!  The  American  min- 
ister roundly  declared  his  inability  to  guarantee  the 
behavior  of  his  colleagues  in  any  way  whatever.  After 
this  he  went  armed  and  fully  prepared  for  an  encounter 
with  the  Queen's  guard. 

Sumpter  was  a  determined  minister.  On  a  second 
attempt  being  made  to  lower  his  dignity  when  he  ran 
into  this  firebrand  of  a  cortege,  he  all  but  blew  a  number 
of  the  royal  escort  out  of  existence.  This  time  the  matter 
was  brought  to  the  King.  The  Queen  complained  of  the 
minister's  insolence,  and  the  minister  complained  of  the 
Queen's  insults.  The  King,  very  rightly,  sided  with  the 
minister,  and  apologized,  assuring  him  that  no  such 
childish  yet  dangerous  experiments  should  be  tried  in  his 
direction  again. 


316     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

The  Queen,  however,  was  not  content  to  let  the  matter 
rest  here.  Her  notorious  violence  had  never  yet  been 
tamed  by  any  move  on  the  part  of  her  peace-loving  hus- 
band. Whether  by  accident  or  design,  only  a  few  days 
after  the  King's  apology,  she  again  met  the  American 
minister  in  the  street.  On  this  occasion  she  was  accom- 
panied by  no  less  than  twelve  guards  who  advanced  on 
the  representative  of  the  United  States  with  the  intention 
this  time  of  really  having  it  out  with  the  stiff-necked, 
conscientious  objector  to  the  salute.  Mr.  Sumpter,  noth- 
ing daunted,  drew  his  pistols,  and  instead  of  running 
away,  as  the  guard  undoubtedly  expected,  dashed  straight 
through  them  and  arrived  at  the  window  of  the  Queen's 
carriage,  with  the  escort,  doubtless  in  a  great  hubbub, 
gesticulating  and  shouting  behind. 

Mr.  Sumpter  appears  to  have  taken  no  notice  of  them 
whatever,  and  they  do  not  seem  to  have  dared  to  approach 
him.  He,  for  his  part,  was  giving  the  Queen  a  most 
gratifying  piece  of  his  mind ;  he  told  her  in  so  many  words 
that  he  refused  to  submit  to  these  orders  of  hers,  and 
that,  to  put  the  matter  abruptly,  he  would  prefer  to 
remain  on  distant  bowing  terms.  He  left  her,  doubtless 
in  a  paroxysm  of  fury,  and  carried  the  matter  directly 
to  the  King,  who  appeared  much  grieved,  and  insisted 
on  making  a  personal  apology.  He  imprisoned  the 
guards  and  offered  to  punish  them  in  any  way  which 
Mr.  Sumpter  should  name.  Seeing  that  the  real  culprit 
was  beyond  the  reach  of  justice,  the  latter  desired  nothing 
of  the  kind,  and,  with  this,  the  curious  incident  seems 
to  have  ended. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  many  of  the  customs  which  were 
encouraged  in  Brazil  at  this  period  were  of  a  crude 
order,  ill-calculated  to  appeal  for  any  length  of  time  to 
the  expanding  intellect  of  the  Brazilian. 

In  such  ports  as  Bahia  and  Pernambuco  it  was  fre- 
quently the  portion  of  the  British  and  other  consuls  to 
take  part  in  some  quaint  ceremonies,  one  of  which  in- 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  317 

eluded  an  obeisance  to  the  portraits  of  the  Emperor  and 
Empress,  which  were  wont  to  be  placed  in  state  beneath 
a  massive  velvet  canopy.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  this  par- 
ticular part  of  one  of  these  official  receptions  was  usually 
omitted  by  the  foreign  consuls,  although  no  other  of  the 
municipal  guests  would  have  dared  to  leave  undone  this 
significant  ceremony,  even  had  his  feelings  prompted  to 
do  so. 

It  was  inevitable  that  a  certain  amount  of  license  should 
have  attended  the  migration  of  the  court  from  Lisbon  to 
Rio  de  Janeiro.  It  is  true  that  the  Portuguese  court 
brought  to  Brazil  a  considerable  amount  of  social,  artistic, 
and  Hterary  benefit.  But  even  a  court  has  its  seamy 
side — or  tail,  as  the  case  may  be.  In  this  case  it  was 
most  decidedly  a  tail,  since  the  seamy  element  was  com- 
prised of  the  Lisbon  beggars.  Enterprising  mendicants, 
these,  to  whose  pilgrimages  the  great  South  Atlantic 
Ocean  itself  formed  no  barrier ! 

Indeed,  the  devotion  of  these  folk  to  the  coins  of  the 
migrated  nobility  and  of  the  rich  colonists  of  Brazil 
appears  to  have  known  no  bounds!  It  is  said  that  no 
vessel  ever  left  the  Tagus,  bound  for  Brazil,  without 
its  quota  of  these  tactful  gentry.  But  when  it  came  to 
giving  them  free  and  official  joassages  on  men-of-war,  the 
thing  grew  Gilbertian  to  a  degree!  Yet  so  it  was,  and 
the  pressed  crew  of  many  a  Portuguese  frigate  had  to 
trim  the  vessel's  sails  in  order  that  they  might  blow 
a  crowd  of  these  mendicants  to  their  destination. 

One  of  the  most  notable  instances  of  this  was  the  sail- 
ing of  the  great  warship  Dotyi  Joao  VI,  which,  after 
various  unsuccessful  attempts,  succeeded  in  crossing  the 
bar  of  the  Tagus  in  1820,  carrying  no  fewer  than  hvelve 
hundred  passengers.  A  very  large  proportion  of  these 
were  beggars.  Many  of  them,  it  must  be  admitted,  had 
smuggled  themselves  on  board,  and  most  of  these,  again, 
had  provided  themselves  with  no  provisions  whatever  for 
the  voyage! 


318     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

The  conditions  under  which  such  a  passage  was  car- 
ried out  may  be  imagined.  Short  of  water,  food — and, 
indeed,  of  everything  but  filth — the  ship  staggered 
through  the  tropics  in  a  completely  insanitary  condition. 
On  its  arrival,  the  colonial  inhabitants  of  Rio  protested  in 
disgust  that  they  had  not  thought  it  possible  that  such  a 
shipload  of  vermin  and  beggars  could  have  floated  on 
the  water! 

It  is  now  time  to  take  a  glimpse  at  the  Englishman, 
settled  among  the  lovely  surroundings  and  comforts  of 
a  lesser  degree  of  the  tropical  ports. 

There  appears  to  have  been  nothing  ostentatious  in  the 
establishments  of  the  early  British  merchants  in  Brazil. 
The  ground  floor  of  one  of  the  ordinary  massive  hewn 
stone  buildings  was  used  as  a  storeroom  for  the  goods. 
The  first  floor  was  mainly  used  as  an  office,  and  as  a 
sample  and  show  room,  while  above  that  again  lived  the 
merchant  and  his  family.  All  this  was  natural  enough, 
of  course,  for  in  those  days  even  in  London  town  the 
merchant  had  not  yet  promoted  his  social  self  away  from 
his  business  premises! 

Btit  the  British  merchant  in  Brazil,  unlike  his  pre- 
decessor John  Gilpin,  found  it  necessary  to  take  most 
of  his  pleasures  at  home.  He  would  put  up  his  shutters 
at  about  two  o'clock,  and  would  prepare  himself  to  dine. 
He  would  don  a  calico  jacket  for  the  occasion,  and  would 
follow  the  Brazilian  fashion  which  made  it  obligatory 
to  offer  one  of  these  cool  garments  to  each  of  his  guests, 
whether  there  were  two  or  a  dozen  in  number.  Then 
would  ensue  the  siesta — the  two  hours  of  blinding-white 
false  night,  when  nothing  stirred  save  the  insects,  and 
dogs,  and  the  vultures  wheeling  in  the  sky. 

Then,  when  the  sun  had  dropped  to  fringe  the  moun- 
tain tops,  there  would  be  a  mild  stir  again  in  the  com- 
mercial quarters  of  the  establishment,  and  principals  and 
clerks  would  get  to  work  again  in  the  matters  of  Man- 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  319 

Chester  goods,  silks,  saddles,  implements,  and  what  not. 
Occasionally  the  merchant  would  set  out  to  amuse  him- 
self, and  would  play  a  game  of  quoits,  imbibing — mark 
you! — honest  bottled  porter  in  the  rays  of  a  burning 
sun  that  has  taught  his  descendants  a  lighter,  and  per- 
haps less  long,  thirst. 

So  much  for  the  British  merchant  at  home  in  Brazil. 
Very  soon  after  his  arrival  the  proper  aids  to  commerce 
began  to  be  established. 

An  imposing  exchange  was  opened  in  Rio  in  1820  by 
the  King,  who  chose  his  birthday  as  the  date  of  the 
occasion.  After  listening  to  an  address  from  the  British 
merchants,  King  Joao  and  his  family  took  part  in  the 
banquet,  which  was  followed  by  a  ball. 

In  addition  to  its  purely  commercial  uses,  the  building 
was  occasionally  used  by  the  Brazilians  for  political  pur- 
poses, and  was  shortly  afterwards  the  scene  of  a  mas- 
sacre, when  the  troops,  without  justification  or  warning, 
fell  upon  the  inmates.  In  the  confusion  the  caretaker,  an 
Englishman  of  the  name  of  Burnet,  was  fortunate  enough 
to  have  his  life  saved  by  his  snuff  box.  For  a  bayonet, 
viciously  aimed  at  his  waistcoat,  would  undoubtedly  have 
penetrated  that  frail  defense  had  not  the  massive  lid  of 
the  box  stayed  the  point ! 

A  trade  which  now  increased  greatly  between  the  Brit- 
ish and  the  Brazilians  was  that  in  Bacalhao,  or  dried  cod 
— a  flattened  and  completely  desiccated  fish  which  re- 
sembles a  board  in  substance  and  a  polecat  in  odor !  The 
taste  for  these  had  originally  been  acquired  by  the  early 
Portuguese  navigators,  and  cargoes  of  the  odorous  deli- 
cacy have  continued  to  be  brought  over  to  Portugal  by 
British  vessels  from  the  Newfoundland  Banks  from  that 
period  right  down  to  the  present  day.  Among  the  early 
British  navigators  this  dried  cod  was  known  as  *'Poore 
John,"  and  as  early  as  1585  it  is  mentioned  that  Drake's 
fleet  on  the  way  to  South  America  captured  a  Spanish 


320     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

vessel  laden  with  it — to  the  no  small  advantage  of  the 
tables  of  the  English  ships,  as  it  was  described  as  ''new 
and  good." 

A  certain  quantity  of  this  had  always  been  consumed 
in  Brazil;  but  the  great  influx  of  Portuguese,  of  course, 
who  arrived  with  the  court,  tended  for  the  first  time  to 
swell  this  trade  to  important  proportions. 

Among  the  failings  of  the  Brazilian  cannot  be  counted 
a  lack  of  shrewdness  and  intellectual  agility.  Yet  on  one 
occasion  at  least  did  the  officials  of  the  new  kingdom  of 
Brazil  display  a  certain  want  of  commercial  astuteness 
which  they  must  doubtless  have  subsequently  regretted. 
For  years,  the  large  and  ponderous  copper  coin  of  the 
Brazils  was  cut  in  Rio  from  sheet  copper  sent  from  Eng- 
land. As  it  happened,  owing  to  the  want  of  proper  appli- 
ances in  the  Brazilian  capital,  the  curved  triangular  inter- 
stices of  the  circles  were  left  over,  and  the  result  was  a 
most  monumental  waste  of  copper. 

An  Englishman,  noticing  this,  purchased  all  the  waste 
pieces  for  a  song,  and  made  a  practice  of  sending  them 
back  to  England  in  order  that  they  should  be  made  up 
into  fresh  sheets  of  copper.  After  a  very  long  time  it 
occurred  to  the  Eio  authorities  to  have  their  coins  sent  out 
from  England  already  cut — a  resolution  the  wisdom  of 
which  was  heartily  applauded  by  the  English  middleman, 
who  had  already  made  a  large  fortune! 

In  Brazil  of  the  early  nineteenth  century  the  English 
shopkeepers  do  not  seem  to  have  shared  the  solid  repu- 
tation earned  by  their  wholesale  merchant  brethren. 
"The  worst  shops,"  complains  Hadfield,  "are  kept  by 
English,  and  this  will  be  found  a  general  rule  in  these 
foreign  towns.  The  merchants  are  good  and  honest ;  but 
if  one  wishes  to  be  well  taken  in,  go  to  a  shop  kept  by 
an  Englishman."  But  this  was  undoubtedly  written  in 
an  unduly  pessimistic  moment. 

Nevertheless,  the  majority  of  contemporary  writers 
agree  concerning  the  excessive  charges  made  by  the  Brit- 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  321 

ish  shopkeepers.  It  is  likely  that  these  had  an  easy  time 
of  it  so  far  as  Brazilian  competition  was  concerned.  For 
the  Rio  shopkeeper  of  the  period  loved  his  ease  better 
than  his  trade.  Were  he  engaged  in  a  friendly  game  of 
cards,  he  would  refuse  to  cease  on  the  entrance  of  a 
customer :  it  required  something  more,  too,  than  so  insig- 
nificant an  entry  to  interrupt  a  friendly  chat  with  a 
crony.  It  is  true  that  at  times  he  would  yield  to  impor- 
tunity to  the  extent  of  requesting  the  customer  to  find 
the  article  for  himself  and  to  lay  down  his  money — but 
he  usually  found  it  simpler  to  explain  that  he  had  nothing 
of  the  kind  in  his  shop ! 

But  beyond  those  who  took  part  in  the  stereotyped 
branches  of  trade  there  were  occasional  free  lances  of 
industry.  One  of  their  number,  a  British  sailor  who 
resided  at  Praya  Grande  in  the  Bay  of  Rio  de  Janeiro, 
must  have  had  as  enterprising  a  mind  as  his  brother 
mariner  who  first  set  up  bathing  machines  in  the  strug- 
ling  infancy  of  that  now  fashionable  Argentine  seaside 
resort.  Mar  del  Plata. 

This  other  shellback,  finding  that  race  meetings  were 
being  held  on  the  Botafogo  beach  in  the  early  1820 's, 
used  to  cross  over  in  a  boat,  laden  with  refreshments, 
furniture,  and  a  tent,  and  would  set  up  a  booth  for  the 
occasion.  The  benefits  of  this  were  fully  appreciated  by 
those  attending  the  race  meetings.  Indeed,  so  solid  were 
the  profits  that  the  sailor's  negro  crew,  on  his  last  home- 
ward passage,  murdered  him  in  order  to  rob  his  body. 

It  was  estimated  that  the  British  community  in  Rio 
de  Janeiro  in  1830  amounted  to  some  seven  hundred 
people.  They  had  already  established  a  circulating 
library,  and  had  founded  their  first  newspaper — an  ephe- 
meral publication  that,  lacking  not  only  a  public  but  an 
actual  population,  soon  withered  away! 

To  the  credit  of  these  British  let  it  be  said  that  as 
early  as  the  first  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century  they 
had  already  devoted  themselves  to  private  theatricals  for 


322     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

the  cause  of  various  charities!  As  it  was  then,  so  it  is 
now.  After  all  it  would  seem  that  a  box  of  properties 
and  some  of  French's  slender  pink  volumes  are  as  much 
a  part  of  the  empire  as  the  cricket  bat,  the  football,  the 
springy  driver,  and  a  sense  of  fair  play. 

Indeed,  the  vessels  themselves  that  fly  the  white  ensign 
on  the  South  American  station  have  done  their  share  in 
these  theatricals,  and  of  quite  recent  years  there  was  a 
gallant  light  cruiser — so  gallant  has  she  proved  herself 
since  in  the  matter  of  powder  and  shot  that  she  may  take 
with  equanimity  any  jest  concerning  mere  powder  and 
paint — whose  officers,  as  soon  as  she  dropped  her  hook 
in  a  harbor,  were  reputed  to  a  man  to  sweep  the  shore 
with  their  glasses  in  search  of  a  suitable  private  theater! 
It  was  even  alleged  by  her  critics  that  a  local  revolution 
was  once  nipped  in  the  bud  by  a  threat  of  a  performance 
of  the  ''Mikado"! 

To  revert  to  the  early  nineteenth  century,  many  enter- 
prising publicans  in  Eio  had  made  it  their  business  that 
the  ordinary  British  sailor  should  feel  at  home  when  he 
landed.  "There  are  plenty  of  English  pot-houses,"  says 
Mrs.  Graham,  in  her  "Journal  of  a  Voyage  to  Brazil," 
"whose  Union  Jacks,  Eed  Lions,  Jolly  Tars,  with  their 
English  inscriptions,  vie  with  those  of  Greenwich  or 
Deptford." 

When  the  British  community  had  fairly  settled  down 
in  Rio  de  Janeiro,  its  members  began  to  ask  themselves 
a  not  unnatural  question.  Why  was  there  no  mutton  in 
Brazil?  The  prejudice  against  this  meat,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  was  as  deep  in  that  country  as  it  was  in  Spanish- 
speaking  South  America.  The  carcass  of  a  sheep  might 
serve  as  tallow,  manure,  or  even  fuel — but,  as  for  any 
portion  of  it  gracing  the  meanest  table — the  Brazilian  of 
the  early  nineteenth  century  would  as  soon  have  con- 
templated breakfasting  on  his  grandmother ! 

A  Mr.  Duval  gave  a  dinner  party  with  the  daring 
object  of  introducing  the  mutton  to  the  Brazilian.     The 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  323 

Rio  guests  came,  saw,  and  made  a  polite  attempt  to 
conquer  their  aversion.  Some  reached  the  point  of  just 
tasting  the  despised  flesh  of  the  sheep,  but  there  the 
matter  ended.  Nevertheless,  this  must  have  been  the  thin 
end  of  the  wedge  of  mutton,  for  the  intense  antipathy 
afterwards  began  to  lessen. 

It  may  be  added  that  at  this  experimental  banquet 
champagne  was  supplied  as  an  antidote  to  the  mutton. 
Many  of  the  Brazilians,  not  previously  acquainted  with 
the  vintages  of  Rheims,  drank  the  champagne  under  the 
impression  that  it  was  an  unusually  pleasant  species  of 
beer — until  an  unexpected  giddiness  in  their  heads  warned 
them  that  this  strange  new  beer  had  a  stranger  bite ! 

Numbers  of  the  early  British  travelers  who  penetrated 
into  the  Arcadian  simplicity  of  the  interior  of  Brazil  bear 
witness  to  the  remarkable  hospitality  of  the  landowner, 
the  Fazendeiro.  In  those  expansive  three-bottle  days  the 
average  British  reputation  for  sobriety  was  a  thing  of 
no  particular  weight — not  substantial  enough,  alas!  to 
crush  an  ordinary  Brazilian  firefly !  The  more  ascetic  of 
these  British  travelers  had,  of  course,  to  submit  to  being 
tarred  with  the  same  brush  of  excessive  joviality  as  the 
rest,  and  to  have  their  persistent  sobriety  thrown  in  their 
faces  in  friendly  reproach.  No  man,  it  was  commonly 
alleged  in  the  primitive  backwoods  of  the  country,  could 
remain  sober  after  dinner  and  at  the  same  time  be  a  good 
Englishman — a  Bern  Inglez! 

In  the  course  of  time,  when  these  simple  folk  in  the 
interior  grew  to  know  more  of  the  British,  their  ideas 
concerning  the  behavior  of  these  curious  islanders  grew 
less  rigid,  and  they  became  accustomed  to  sitting  down 
with  him  at  table — where  the  dried  cod  and  beef,  chilis, 
mandioca,  garlic,  and  the  numerous  other  ingredients  lay 
in  the  common  dish  at  the  mercy  of  fingers  as  well  as 
of  knives  and  forks — without  necessarily  counting  on  a 
single  hiccough ! 

The  ethics  of  most  of  these  establishments  were  patri- 


SM     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

archal,  but  occasionally,  in  those  very  primitive  house- 
holds that  lay  at  the  "back  of  beyond"  this  simplicity — 
although  it  did  not  in  the  least  interfere  with  the  hospi- 
tality extended — assumed  a  form  of  frank  distrust  of 
the  stranger  which  was  embarrassing.  Hadfield,  for  in- 
stance, states  that  after  retiring  to  bed  for  the  night,  the 
overhearing  of  a  conversation  such  as  the  following  was 
no  uncommon  experience: 

''Wife.    Zuza,  have  you  bolted  the  stranger  in? 

Planter.     No,  I  forgot  it;  but  never  mind. 

Wife.  Never  mind,  indeed!  But  I  do  mind.  Ger- 
trude ! 

Black  Girl.     'Nhora!   (meaning  senhora). 

Wife.  Get  up,  and  bolt  the  door  in  the  passage  leading 
to  the  stranger's  room." 

And  then  would  follow  the  drawing  of  the  bolts,  and 
with  the  sound  of  this  unusual  serenade  in  his  ears  the 
stranger  would  have  to  compose  himself  to  sleep. 

Mr.  John  Mawe,  who  wrote  in  1825,  relates  a  curious 
experience  which  he  underwent  in  Brazil.  He  obtained 
permission  to  explore  the  diamond  mines  of  Cerro  do 
Ffio.  This  was  by  way  of  being  a  considerable  favor, 
which  had  so  far  been  granted  neither  to  any  foreigner 
nor  Portuguese.  That  which  made  his  trip  all  the  more 
interesting  was  the  somewhat  extraordinary  happening 
which  occurred  on  the  eve  of  his  departure. 

An  African  Negro  of  the  Villa  do  Principe,  about  nine 
hundred  miles  from  Eio  de  Janeiro,  wrote  to  the  Prince 
Regent.  He  possessed,  it  appeared,  an  astonishingly 
large  diamond,  which  he  begged  the  honor  of  presenting 
to  his  Royal  Highness  in  person.  As  may  be  imagined, 
the  offer  was  accepted,  and  an  escort  of  soldiers  was 
sent  to  guard  the  fortunate  man  on  his  way  to  Rio  de 
Janeiro. 

His  procession  across  the  country  was  something  in 
the  nature  of  a  triumph.  His  entourage  already  saw  him 
a  blaze  of  crosses  and  decorations,  and  his  escort  rejoiced 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  325 

in  the  certainty  of  promotion.  In  fact,  the  Negro  and 
his  diamond  proceeded  on  their  way  in  a  flash  of  glory. 

When  the  time  came  for  him  to  be  admitted  into  the 
royal  presence,  the  dusky  donor  flung  himself  at  the  feet 
of  the  Prince,  and  handed  over  his  gem.  The  gasp  of 
astonishment  with  which  this  was  viewed  must,  in  one 
sense,  have  repaid  the  poor  man  for  all  his  travels.  The 
thing  was,  apparently,  a  marvelous  round  diamond,  of 
nearly  a  pound  in  weight!  Therefore  the  stone  was 
worth  millions  of  pounds  sterling ! 

A  tremor  of  rejoicing  filled  the  room  in  which  it  shone, 
and  presently  the  astonishing  gem  was  sent  to  be  locked 
up  under  a  strong  guard.  Presently  also,  alasr!  sus- 
picions as  to  the  genuineness  of  this  gargantuan  jewel 
became  aroused,  and  Mawe  himself  was  asked  by  the 
Conde  de  Linhares  to  view  it.  The  visitor  was  led 
through  apartments  hung  with  scarlet  and  gold  until  he 
came  to  one  abounding  in  strong  chests,  each  of  which 
possessed  three  keys,  held  by  three  different  personages. 

From  the  recesses  of  one  of  these  the  great  jewel  was 
produced,  and  Mawe,  who  appears  to  have  been  some- 
thing of  an  expert,  was  obliged,  somewhat  to  his  embar- 
rassment, to  announce  the  thing  a  mere  worthless  crys- 
tal !  The  shining  bubble  had  burst,  and  so  had  the  fame 
of  the  Negro!  The  unfortunate  black  returned  to  his 
home  minus  his  escort  of  soldiers,  and  without  a  single 
decoration.  He  was  doubtless  an  honest  man,  who  re- 
gretted the  day  he  had  dabbled  in  supposed  jewelery ! 

This  Mr.  Mawe,  it  may  be  mentioned,  experienced  some 
sufficiently  amusing  adventures  on  his  travels  into  the 
unsophisticated  interior  of  Brazil.  Thus  in  1809  at  the 
small  town  of  Barbacena  he  found  himself  an  object  of 
intense  curiosity.  The  shops  of  the  place  were  stocked 
with  British  goods — articles  which  the  inhabitants  had 
already  learned  to  regard  with  admiration.  But  never 
before  had  they  had  the  opportunity  of  gazing  upon  an 
Englishman — one  of  those  curious  creatures  capable  of 


326     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

manufacturing  these  marvelous  objects  which  of  late  had 
lit  down  upon  them  from  the  skies — and  they  were  deter- 
mined to  make  the  most  of  their  time ! 

In  this  respect  Walsh  utters  some  remarks  concerning 
the  town  of  Villa  Rica,  which  I  much  doubt  could  be 
repeated  with  the  same  fervor  to-day.  The  place,  he 
says,  had  shops  ''filled  with  a  great  variety  and  good 
assortment  of  all  kinds  of  ware ;  cotton  goods  from  Man- 
chester, broad-cloths  from  Yorkshire,  stockings  from 
Nottingham,  hats  from  London,  and  cutlery  from  Shef- 
field, actually  sold  in  the  heart  of  the  mountains  of  South 
America,  as  abundant  and  almost  as  cheap,  as  in  the 
towns  where  they  were  manufactured;  and  when  I  saw 
about  me  everywhere  the  produce  of  the  labor  of  our 
hands,  I  could  not  help  exclaiming  with  ^neas,  and  with  a 
more  literal  application.  Quae  regio  in  terris  nostri  non 
plena  laboris." 

Returning  to  the  topic  of  the  Brazilian  mines,  it  may 
be  said  that  some  seventy  miles  to  the  north  of  this 
town  of  Villa  Rica  were  the  Gongo  Soco  mines,  which, 
together  with  some  other  properties  of  the  kind,  were 
purchased  in  1825  by  the  Imperial  Brazilian  Mining 
Association,  of  London.  At  one  time  no  less  than  one 
hundred  and  eighty  British  miners  were  working  at  the 
spot,  which,  it  was  hoped,  would  soon  expand  into  a 
regular  Cornish  village  in  the  interior  of  Brazil.  The 
enterprise  was  under  the  supervision  of  a  Mr.  Tregoning 
and  a  Captain  Lyons,  the  latter  presumably  a  mine- 
captain.  A  church  was  begun  at  the  place,  and  the 
Bishop  of  London  appointed  a  chaplain  to  proceed  there. 
But  the  expectations  to  which  the  venture  gave  birth  do 
not  seem  ever  to  have  been  realized. 


CHAPTER  XVn 

THE   BRITISH  IN   BKAZILi    (iv) 

Establishment  of  the  Brazilian  regular  army — Arrival  of  British  officers 
— The  introduction  of  the  Irish  soldier-agriculturists — Enthusiasm 
with  which  the  proposal  was  received  in  Ireland — The  voyage  to  the 
South — Arrival  of  the  Irish  in  Brazil — Disappointment  which  awaited 
thsm  there — Bitter  experiences  of  the  newcomers — Friction  between 
the  Irish  and  the  negroes — Aggressive  attitude  of  the  latter — Affrays 
in  the  streets  of  Rio — The  species  of  Justice  meted  out  to  the  Irish — 
Their  impossible  siuation — The  Emperor  Pedro  and  the  Hibernian 
immigrants — Curious  incident  at  Mass — Rising  of  the  Irish — Scenes  in 
the  streets  of  the  capital — Attitude  of  the  authorities — Panic-stricken 
officials — Work  of  the  rabble — End  of  the  insurrection — A  number  of 
the  Irish  return  to  their  own  country — Ultimate  success  of  those  who 
remained — Walsh's  description  of  an  idyllic  homestead — Experiences 
of  some  foreign  officers  in  the  Brazilian  regular  army — Admiral 
Grenfell — His  early  days  and  career  in  South  America — He  joins  the 
Brazilian  navy — His  services  against  Argentina  and  the  Southern 
rebels — As  rear-admiral,  he  becomes  Consul-General  to  Great  Britain 
— Further  services  in  Brazil  and  England — Impetuosity  of  the 
Emperor  Pedro  I — His  eccentricity  in  private  life — How  he  pro- 
vided a  new  constitution  for  Portugal  within  a  week — The  fount  of 
his  knowledge  of  the  English  language — The  imconscious  linguistic 
solecisms  of  the  royal  couple. 

THE  reorganization  of  the  Brazilian  forces  on  the 
withdrawal  of  the  European  troops  had  been  no 
light  matter.  On  the  departure  of  the  Portu- 
guese battalions  the  sole  national  force  of  Brazil  was 
the  militia,  a  very  moderately  efficient  body.  Strenuous 
efforts  were  made,  and  with  unusual  promptness  a  bat- 
talion of  artillery  was  formed  of  freed  blacks,  while  a 
body  of  a  thousand  men  was  collected  and  sent  to  Bahia. 
In  the  province  of  Minas  GeraBs  a  cavalry  regiment  of 
six  hundred  men  was  equipped,  and  thus  was  established 
the  beginning  of  the  regular  army  of  Brazil. 

In  many  respects,  the  Brazilians  themselves,  that  is 

327 


328     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

to  say,  the  descendants  of  the  European  Portuguese,  were 
fiery  enough  when  roused;  but  the  inevitable  indolence 
brought  about  by  the  climate  did  not  tend  toward  enthusi- 
astic volunteering  and  to  smartness  in  manceuvering  or 
drill.  Pedro  himself  took  a  very  active  interest  in  the 
matter,  and  he  is  said  to  have  been  almost  childishly 
pleased  at  the  formation  of  a  small  corps  of  cavalry. 

A  Colonel  Bacon  and  a  few  other  officers  arrived  from 
England  for  the  purpose  of  organizing  this,  and  very 
soon  the  nucleus  of  a  cavalry  regiment  was  established 
which  was  called  the  ** Queen's  Lancers."  The  chief  ele- 
ment, nevertheless,  from  which  the  Brazilian  army  was 
constituted  was  that  of  the  negro,  whose  black  battalions 
and  officers  have  already  been  referred  to. 

It  was  not  long  before  trouble  arose  with  the  neigh- 
boring Spanish-speaking  republic  of  Argentina.  The  old 
Spanish  province  of  the  Banda  Oriental  constituted  the 
bone  of  contention.  Hostilities  broke  out,  and  in  order 
to  increase  the  prestige  of  the  Brazilian  army  the  min- 
isters determined  to  offer  inducements  to  Europeans  to 
enlist.  A  considerable  number  of  German  troops  were 
secured  in  this  fashion,  but  the  most  dramatic,  and,  in- 
deed, tragic,  of  all  the  episodes  of  the  kind  was  pro- 
vided by  the  unfortunate  Irish  who  were  induced  to  come 
out  to  Brazil  in  1828  in  the  double  capacity  of  agricul- 
turists and  soldiers. 

The  terms  of  the  experiment  certainly  sounded  alluring 
to  the  poverty-stricken  Irish  peasants.  The  Brazilian 
government  proclaimed  that  every  man  was  to  receive 
pay  equal  to  one  shilling  per  day,  as  well  as  one  pound  of 
beef  and  one  pound  of  bread  as  rations.  In  return,  the 
immigrants  were  to  be  employed  four  hours  each  day  in 
learning  military  exercises.  They  were  to  be  ready  to 
act  as  soldiers  at  any  time,  but  should  not  be  sent  out  of 
the  Province  of  Rio  unless  in  the  time  of  war  and  in- 
vasion. At  the  end  of  five  years  they  were  to  be  dis- 
charged from  military  service  and  each  was  to  become  a 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  329 

farmer,  pure  and  simple,  and  to  have  fifty  acres  of  land 
assigned  to  him.  However  generous  may  have  been  the 
intentions  of  the  Brazilian  Government  it  is  probably  un- 
necessary to  explain  that  fifty  acres  sound,  and  mean,  far 
more  in  Ireland  than  in  Brazil ! 

This  proclamation,  affixed  to  chapel  doors  in  Cork,  was 
received  by  the  poor  folk  with  exuberant  joy,  and  the 
Irish  peasantry  said  good-by  to  their  pigs  and  peats,  and 
prepared  to  flock  to  Brazil.  Many  even  sold  their  farais 
and  bought  new  agricultural  implements  with  the  pro- 
ceeds, imagining  that  their  military  service  was  to  be 
something  in  the  style  of  the  local  yeomanry,  and  that 
their  farming  operations  might  begin  at  once. 

There  may  have  been  a  few  undesirable  characters 
among  them,  but  the  majority  of  the  two  thousand  four 
hundred  who  proceeded  to  Bl-azil,  and  to  an  unfortunate 
fate,  were  decent  and  admirable  folk,  willing  to  work  and, 
in  fact,  an  excellent  type  of  colonist.  Among  their  num- 
ber, too,  were  skilled  mechanics,  who  carried  their  tools 
with  them;  most  desirable  immigrants,  these. 

These  honest  folk  from  the  emerald  isle  took  up  the 
invitation  of  the  Brazilian  Government,  and  set  out  across 
the  ocean,  prepared  to  carry  out  every  ounce  of  their 
share  of  the  contract.  Doubtless  the  news  sent  home 
from  time  to  time  from  their  flourishing  kindred  in  the 
pastures  of  the  river  Plate  had  increased  their  confidence, 
and  had  made  them  bold  enough  to  uproot  themselves 
and  their  families  for  this  momentous  venture. 

So  this  great  company  of  agricultural  Irish  set  sail. 
Their  spirits  rose  when  they  found  that  the  vessels  which 
awaited  them  were  as  well  found  and  as  bountifully  pro- 
visioned as  could  possibly  have  been  expected.  So  it  was 
with  high  hopes  that  they  sweltered  in  the  tropics,  braved 
the  terrors  of  the  doldrums,  and  eventually  sailed  between 
the  peaks  which  guard  the  entrance  of  the  beautiful  har- 
bor of  Eio. 

They  had  arrived,  and  with  their  arrival  sounded  their 


330     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

tragedy!  They  had  been  better  off  in  the  most  storm- 
tossed  hour  of  the  voyage  than  in  the  calm  and  fairy- 
like beauty  of  the  Bay  of  Rio.  Briefly,  nothing  had  been 
prepared  for  them.  The  fields  that  they  were  to  till  were 
— hidden  somewhere  or  other  beneath  those  enormous 
waves  of  virgin  forest!  The  timber  of  the  homesteads 
that  should  have  awaited  them  was  in  the  forest  too, 
alive  and  verdant,  and  quite  innocent  of  the  ax ! 

The  despair  of  the  immigrants  may  be  imagined  when 
little  by  little  it  dawned  on  them  that,  not  only  had  the 
stipulated  accommodation  not  been  prepared,  but  that  it 
was  highly  unlikely  that  it  ever  would  be.  A  fit  of  en- 
thusiasm had  induced  promises  of  energy;  but  in  the 
calmer  succeeding  months  the  fulfilment  of  this  had 
expired — stillborn!  As  it  happened,  too,  Barbozo,  the 
minister  for  war  at  the  time  of  their  landing,  was  vio- 
lently hostile  to  the  foreigners  and  to  the  scheme  in  which 
they  were  involved.  It  was  no  doubt  the  influence  of  this 
man  which  went  far  towards  creating  the  unbearable 
situation  in  which  the  immigrants  subsequently  found 
themselves.  In  the  meantime,  explained  the  courteous 
officials,  here  was  Rio,  very  much  at  the  service  of  the 
Irish.  Nothing  remained  for  them  but  to  make  them- 
selves at  home ! 

The  rest  of  the  story  makes  pitiful  reading.  The  help- 
less Irish,  humble  and  forsaken  strangers  in  a  strange 
land,  were  soon  reduced  to  the  verge  of  starvation.  Thus 
these  guests  of  the  Brazilian  Government — the  victims  of 
sloth  rather  than  of  conscious  malice — ^were  to  be  met 
with  at  the  street  corners  of  Rio,  huddled  in  unkempt  and 
miserable  groups.  In  the  end  most  of  the  men  were  pro- 
vided with  wretched  quarters  and  worse  food. 

To  crown  the  whole  business,  the  very  Negro  slaves  of 
Rio,  rejoicing  in  the  rare  spectacle  of  a  set  of  human  be- 
ings in  a  more  lamentable  condition  than  their  own,  took 
to  shouting  insults  at  the  hapless  immigrants,  and  many 
a  jeer  ofEscravos  hrancos!" — white  slaves — came  from 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  331 

the  grinning  African  lips.  From  this  point  to  that  of  ac- 
tual assault,  the  way  was  as  easy  as  that  favored  by  any 
other  mob.  Moreover,  the  blacks  began  to  enter  into  the 
atfair  with  a  vastly  increased  zest  as  soon  as  the  attitude 
of  the  minor  officials  of  Kio  grew  clear.  These  had  no 
sympathy  whatever  with  the  agriculturalists  wrecked  in 
the  middle  of  a  town ! 

This  was  made  evident  enough  by  their  conduct  after 
each  of  these  affrays  when  the  Irish  had  been  set  on  by  a 
horde  of  blacks.  Then,  they  would  snatch  at  every  pre- 
text of  imprisoning  the  Irish  and  of  letting  the  Negro 
go  free.  Where  they  considered  it  unavoidable  to  im- 
prison both,  they  afforded  the  townspeople  in  general 
the  edifying  spectacle  of  witnessing  these  honest  Irish 
peasants  and  yeomen — many  of  whom  had  actually  sold 
their  properties  in  order  to  take  up  land  in  this  new  coun- 
try— chained  side  by  side  with  Negro  prisoners,  and  thus 
set  to  enforced  labor  in  the  most  degraded  fashion. 

The  inevitable  results  of  this  policy  were  not  long  in 
asserting  themselves.  After  a  time  none  of  the  Irish 
agricultural  recruits,  nor  even  their  officers,  could  walk 
the  sun-bathed  streets  of  Rio  without  being  assaulted  by 
crowds  of  negroes.  As  for  the  people  of  the  town,  they 
seem  to  have  looked  upon  the  affair  rather  in  the  light  of 
an  amusement.  Walsh  was  present  in  Rio  at  the  time, 
and  remarks  that ' '  The  people  of  the  town  looked  on  with 
satisfaction,  and  were  frequently  seen  setting  on  the 
Negroes,  as  I  have  seen  Turks  hallooing  on  their  swarms 
of  dogs  on  Christian  passengers." 

All  this  makes  anything  but  a  pleasant  picture  to  dwell 
on.  Of  course  it  must  not  be  imagined  that  the  reputable 
inhabitants  of  Rio  were  concerned  in  these  outrages,  nor 
that  those  who  perpetrated  them  received  encouragement 
from  the  high  officials.  The  Emperor  Pedro  himself  ap- 
pears to  have  been  very  well  disposed  toward  these  Irish 
on  their  first  arrival.  He  made  a  point  of  attending  mass 
in  their  company,  and  of  kneeling  down  in  their  midst. 


332     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

In  connection  with  this  a  somewhat  embarrassing  inci- 
dent occurred,  which  illustrates  the  utter  simplicity  and 
credulity  of  these  Irish.  By  some  means  or  other  a  re- 
port was  circulated  among  them  that  if  the  Emperor  per- 
formed this  ceremony  in  their  midst  three  times  in 
succession  they  would  be  bound  to  him  for  unlimited  mili- 
tary service  for  the  remainder  of  their  lives. 

Strange  as  it  may  appear,  this  childish  rumor  received 
full  credence,  and  when  the  Emperor  made  his  third  ap- 
pearance at  mass,  the  chapel  was  empty  of  all  but  the 
officers  of  the  Irish  regiment,  who  had  to  put  the  best  face 
they  could  on  the  matter. 

It  was  almost  certainly  ignorance  on  the  Emperor's 
part  of  what  was  going  on  which  prevented  him  from 
intervening  in  the  cause  of  the  Irish.  But  this  treat- 
ment was  not  to  be  indefinitely  continued  with  impunity. 
It  is  surprising  enough  to  find  that  it  was  allowed  to  last 
for  six  months ;  doubtless  the  only  reason  lay  in  the  con- 
tinued hope  of  the  Irish  in  a  more  equitable  state  of  af- 
fairs. Then  all  at  once  the  patience  of  the  strangers  came 
to  an  end,  and  some  wild  scenes  ensued. 

Common  cause  was  made  with  some  German  soldiers 
who  had  suffered  a  somewhat  similar  catastrophe  to  that 
of  the  Irish.  The  mutiny  now  spread  rapidly.  Two 
hundred  of  the  Irish  were  now  actively  involved  in  this. 
The  houses  of  several  Portuguese  and  Brazilians  were 
plundered,  and  some  of  the  owners  only  just  escaped  with 
their  lives. 

One  of  the  most  hated  officers  was  a  major,  an  Italian 
of  the  name  of  Teola,  who,  it  was  stated,  had  originally 
been  a  waiter  in  a  hotel  of  the  capital,  but  through  the 
influence  of  a  comely  wife  had  obtained  a  commission  in 
the  German  regiment.  Since  punishments  were  fre- 
quently brought  about  by  fining  the  men,  their  oflScers 
had  often  enough  been  able  to  embezzle  the  greater  part 
of  their  pay ;  but  none,  it  appears,  had  been  so  active  in 
this  form  of  transgression  as  Teola. 


LANDING    STAGK,    RIO    UE    JANIiIKO    (liARLY    XIX   CENTURY) 


PUBLIC   GARDENS,   RIO   DE   JANEIRO   (1835) 


J 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  333 

When  the  mutiny  broke  out,  he  it^was  who  was  the 
first  set  on  by  the  German  soldiers.  As  he  rushed  to 
make  his  escape  over  the  wall  of  the  barracks,  he  was 
caught  and  pulled  down;  he  was  then  stabbed  by  the 
bayonets  of  the  men  and  finally  crushed  to  death  by  large 
stones,  thrown  on  him  by  the  enraged  men.  Two  other 
oflBcers  who  attempted  to  take  his  part,  were  badly  hurt. 

Rio  de  Janeiro  was  now  thoroughly  alarmed.  The 
Brazilian  troops  were  ordered  under  arms,  and  the  min- 
ister of  war  gave  instructions  to  the  commandant,  the 
Conde  de  Rio  Pardo,  *'to  destroy  every  man:  to  give  no 
quarter,  but  to  exterminate  the  strangers" — a  feat  more 
easily  ordered  than  done,  now  that  the  blood  of  the  Irish 
was  up.  In  the  meanwhile  the  blacks  and  the  rabble  of 
the  city  were  given  permission  to  take  up  arms  and  to 
work  their  will  upon  the  mutineers.  That  such  a  meas- 
ure as  this  should  have  been  put  into  effect  shows  the 
depth  of  the  hysterical  terror  to  which  the  officials  had 
been  reduced ! 

The  mutineers  by  now  had  been  wrought  into  a  condi- 
tion of  complete  fury.  They  sacked  entire  streets,  and 
fired  with  enthusiasm  into  the  ranks  of  the  blacks  and 
the  rabble,  who  were  attacking  them,  and,  charging,  paid 
off  many  old  scores — while  the  streets  were  rapidly  filling 
with  dead  and  wounded.  By  this  time,  indeed,  the  mob 
had  begun  thoroughly  to  repent  of  its  temerity.  Seeing 
that  the  situation  had  got  beyond  them,  the  Brazilian 
Government  applied  to  the  British  and  French  warships 
which  lay  at  anchor  in  the  harbor  for  landing  parties  of 
their  respective  marines,  while  the  Portuguese  troops, 
cooperating  with  these,  displayed  humanity,  and  endeav- 
ored, as  far  as  was  possible,  to  reason  with  the  insurgents. 
These  latter,  in  the  end,  submitted,  and  on  the  eve  of 
the  12th  of  June  everything  was  tranquil  once  again. 

In  the  meantime  the  scenes  which  had  occurred  in  the 
streets  had  been  terrible.  The  Negroes,  mulattos,  and  a 
heterogeneous  rabble  had  taken  advantage  of  the  license 


334      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

to  kill  granted  tliem  by  the  authorities,  quite  regardless  of 
the  nationality  and  status  of  their  victims.  They  had 
set  upon  every  stranger  they  met,  and  the  savagery  com- 
mitted was  as  awful  as  the  death  roll  itself. 

After  these  wild  occurrences  the  Irish  were  released 
from  the  dungeons  and  other  prisons  into  which  they  had 
been  thrown  to  linger  neglected,  and  were  sent  on  various 
ships  to  their  native  land,  where  they  had,  perforce,  to 
endeavor  to  take  up  again  the  broken  thread  of  their 
lives.  The  unfortunate  folk  were  accused  of  carrying 
away  much  plunder;  but  a  search  through  their  boxes 
revealed  no  evidence  whatever  of  this.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  if  ever  circumstances  justified  plunder,  they  were 
surely  those  in  which  the  Irish  found  themselves !  Some 
four  hundred  of  the  total  number  remained  in  Brazil,  and, 
living  their  lives  as  private  citizens,  gradually  accom- 
modated themselves  to  their  surroundings. 

Two  hundred  and  twenty  of  these  were  sent  as  a  colony 
to  the  province  of  Bahia,  and  at  Taparoa  in  the  Comarca 
of  Ilheos  they  were  said  to  have  become  a  thriving  com- 
munity. All  of  the  four  hundred  who  remained,  in  fact, 
did  well  for  themselves  and  for  the  country  of  their  adop- 
tion, as  would  undoubtedly  have  been  the  case  with  the 
entire  number,  had  they  received  the  faintest  encour- 
agement. 

Here  is  Mr.  Walsh's  description  of  his  visit  to  one  of 
those  families  who  had  taken  up  land  in  the  Organ  Moun- 
tains : 

*  *  The  way  led  through  the  wildest  scenery ;  and  on  the 
bank  of  a  river,  in  the  center  of  a  forest,  we  found  these 
colonists.  They  had  built  a  large  and  comfortable  house 
with  a  rustic  portico,  and  thatched  it  very  neatly  with 
palm  branches,  whose  regular  fronds  formed  a  tasty  roof, 
the  stems  and  pinnate  leaves  of  which  were  very  elegantly 
disposed  in  the  thatch.  On  the  other  side  of  the  river, 
which  we  crossed  by  two  trees  forming  a  rustic  bridge, 
was  a  large  shed  for  cattle,  and  other  conveniences ;  and 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  335 

rising  up  the  hill  was  an  extensive  plantation  of  coffee, 
behind  which,  descending  into  a  glen,  was  a  rich  field  of 
Indian  corn  in  high  health,  with  gourds,  mandioca,  and  a 
variety  of  other  produce  of  Brazilian  agriculture.  On 
our  return  the  good  woman  had  prepared  for  us  a  plenti- 
ful dish  of  bacon  and  eggs,  with  fried  cakes  of  maize; 
and  our  entertainment  concluded  with  w^hisky,  which  our 
host  had  contrived  to  distil  from  his  coffee  plantation. 
When  I  contemplated  this  comfortable  house  and  abun- 
dant farm,  rescued  from  the  heart  of  a  Brazilian  forest, 
cultivated  by  persons  who  in  their  own  country  could  not 
make  out  a  scanty  livelihood  in  a  miserable  hovel,  I  could 
not  help  feeling  the  deepest  regret,  that  2400  who  had 
left  their  homes  were  not,  as  they  might  have  been,  so 
located." 

Decidedly  this  is  a  picture  of  intelligent  peace  after 
the  storm! 

About  this  period,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  treatment  of 
even  the  regular  officers  in  the  Brazilian  service  was  not 
always  marked  by  consideration.  On  one  occasion  a 
number  of  foreign  officers,  among  them  some  British, 
were  dismissed  from  their  posts  on  parade,  and  they  were 
hastened  on  board  a  European-bound  vessel  with  such 
precipitation  that  they  were  unable  to  take  even  an  over- 
coat with  them!  This  savors  of  the  kind  of  treatment 
accorded  to  unmasked  conspirators,  but  apparently  no 
charges  of  this  kind  were  brought  forward. 

That  this  kind  of  episode  was  the  result  of  a  petty 
tyranny  on  the  part  of  the  officials  seems  to  be  proved 
by  the  uncompromising  manner  in  which  leave  was  re- 
fused to  many  of  the  British  officers  in  the  Brazilian 
navy,  even  when  this  was  asked  for  reasons  of  health. 

As  a  corrective  to  the  depressing  picture  afforded  by 
these  unfortunate  Irish,  the  case  of  Admiral  Grenfell 
presents  itself.  Grenfell 's  exact  place  in  South  Amer- 
ican history  is  a  little  difficult  to  locate.  Beginning  his 
career  on  that  continent  on  the  Pacific  coast,  he  assisted 


336     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

in  achieving  the  independence  of  the  Spanish  colonies,  and 
subsequently  shared  in  the  vicissitudes  of  Brazil  both  as 
kingdom  and  empire. 

Admiral  Grenfell,  this  British  sailor  who  made  his 
mark  in  South  American  history,  jumped  into  his  man- 
hood's calling  when  he  was  little  more  than  a  child!  He 
was  born  in  1800,  and  at  eleven  years  of  age  he  began  his 
career  as  a  midshipman  in  the  service  of  the  Honorable 
East  India  Company.  This  service  he  left — when  a 
veteran  of  nineteen ! — to  take  up  a  lieutenancy  under  Lord 
Cochrane  in  the  Chilean  navy. 

Here  he  distinguished  himself  in  the  strenuous  naval 
combats  of  the  Pacific,  and  when,  the  independence  of  the 
west  coast  achieved,  Lord  Cochrane  proceeded  to  the  At- 
lantic to  assume  command  of  the  Brazilian  squadron, 
Grenfell  accompanied  his  chief. 

As  commander  in  the  Brazilian  navy  Grenfell  per- 
formed notable  service  in  the  capture  of  Para  from  the 
Portuguese.  When  the  separation  of  Brazil  from  Por- 
tugal had  become  an  assured  fact,  Grenfell  remained  as 
post-captain  with  the  forces  of  the  southern  empire,  and 
soon  found  himself,  in  command  of  an  18-gun  brig,  as 
one  of  the  units  opposed  to  the  Buenos  Aires  naval  forces 
commanded  by  that  very  gallant  Irishman,  Admiral 
Brown,  whose  extraordinary  personal  force  went  far  to- 
ward counterbalancing  the  actual  inferiority  in  strength 
of  the  Argentines. 

In  the  naval  battle  off  Buenos  Aires  fought  in  July, 
1826,  in  which  Admiral  Brown's  vessel,  after  the  fiercest 
resistance,  was  driven  ashore  a  complete  wreck,  a  cannon 
ball  shattered  Grenfell 's  right  arm,  which  was  subse- 
quently amputated. 

In  the  operations  attending  the  rebellion  of  the  South- 
ern state  of  Rio  Grande  do  Sul  between  the  years  1835 
and  1837,  Grenfell,  now  Commodore,  distinguished  him- 
self not  only  in  the  campaign  on  the  lakes  and  rivers,  but 
in  his  relations  with  the  rebels,  the  influence  that  he  even- 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  337 

tually  acquired  over  these  being  one  of  the  chief  factors 
in  the  cessation  of  a  very  serious  rebellion. 

For  these  services  Grenfell  was  promoted  to  the  rank 
of  rear-admiral,  and  in  1840,  hoisting  his  flag  in  the  50- 
gun  frigate  Constitution,  he  was  placed  in  command  of  a 
squadron  which — attended  by  warships  respectively  of 
Great  Britain,  the  United  States,  and  Portugal — carried 
the  Emperor  and  Empress  of  Brazil  for  a  tour  of  their 
southern  provinces.  In  1846,  shortly  after  this,  he  sailed 
to  England  in  the  Constitution,  and  there  took  up  the 
duties  of  consul-general  of  Brazil  in  Great  Britain. 

In  1851,  however,  an  outbreak  of  hostilities  between 
Brazil  and  Buenos  Aires  called  Grenfell  from  his  con- 
sular duties  to  the  scene  of  action  in  the  river  Plate, 
where  he  again  hoisted  his  flag  on  the  Constitution,  and 
played  a  notable  part  in  the  war  which  ended  in  the  down- 
fall of  the  Argentine  dictator  Rosas.  At  the  end  of  the 
war  Grenfell,  having  now  attained  to  the  rank  of  vice- 
admiral,  returned  to  England  to  resume  his  appointment 
of  consul-general. 

Grenfell 's  career  is  not  the  only  one  which  goes  to 
prove  that  the  Brazilians  of  that  period  were  fully  capable 
of  rewarding  meritorious  service.  There  is  no  doubt, 
however,  that  considerable  inconvenience,  and  occasional 
hardship  were  frequently  caused  by  the  sudden  impulses 
of  the  Emperor,  which  tended  to  bring  schemes  into  being 
without  sufiBcient  forethought. 

The  Emperor  Pedro  I  of  Brazil  was  in  many  respects 
a  most  impetuous  person.  Of  what  other  temperament 
could  be  one  who  would  walk  about  his  palace  at  daybreak, 
discharging  his  shotgun  to  wake  up  his  family !  When  he 
flung  himself  in  medias  res  it  was  with  the  fury  of  a 
Prussian  guardsman  charging  into  a  neutral  country! 
Here  is  one  of  the  most  striking  instances  of  this.  The 
official  news  of  his  father's  death  in  Lisbon  reached  Rio 
on  the  25th  of  April,  1826.  This,  of  course,  left  the  crown 
of  Portugal  in  the  hands  of  Pedro,  and  he  forthwith 


338     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

plunged  into  as  strenuous  a  week  as  any  king  or  emperor 
could  desire.  Within  that  period  he  had  created  new 
peers  for  a  brand-new  chamber,  had  framed  a  new  code 
of  laws,  and,  in  fact,  had  provided  Portugal  with  a  new 
constitution !  When  he  had  achieved  all  this,  he  abdicated 
in  favor  of  his  daughter.  Dona  Maria,  on  the  2nd  of  May. 
So  on  this  occasion  at  least  Portugal  might  boast  of  a 
king  who  had  scarcely  wasted  an  hour  of  his  entire  reign 
— of  six  days ! 

There  can  seldom  have  been  a  more  complete  antithesis 
of  the  mountain  which  was  in  labor  and  which  produced 
a  mouse!  The  exigencies  of  the  political  situation  had 
caused  Sir  Charles  Stuart,  the  British  ambassador  to 
Lisbon,  to  be  in  Eio  just  then  and  he  was  on  the  eve  of 
his  return  to  Portugal.  His  amazement  may  be  imagined 
when  Pedro  sent  for  him,  and  produced  a  bundle  of 
papers,  which  he  begged  him  to  take  back  with  him  to 
Lisbon.  The  package  contained  the  new  constitution  of 
Portugal,  he  explained,  to  which  he  had  devoted  the 
greater  part  of  the  past  week ! 

This  feverish  feat  was  all  the  more  remarkable  in  an 
age  that  knew  nothing  of  the  bustle  of  the  present  day. 
When  royal  mails  and  messengers  lay  at  the  mercy  of  any 
freak  of  wind  and  tide,  a  delay  of  some  weeks  might  well 
cause  less  comment  than  an  unpunctuality  of  some  hours 
in  the  twentieth  century. 

It  is  said — and  there  seems  no  particular  reason  to 
doubt — that  the  first  news  of  one  of  the  revolutions  in 
Para  in  the  early  days  of  the  Brazilian  Empire  was 
brought  to  Rio  de  Janeiro  from  Para  in  sixty  days  by  a 
British  sailing  vessel  hy  way  of  England.  The  reasons 
for  this  extraordinary  occurrence  were,  in  the  first  place, 
the  utter  want  of  land  communications ;  and  in  the  second, 
the  unusual  strength  of  the  ocean  current  running  north- 
wards from  Bahia,  which,  further  impeded  by  a  spell  of 
southerly  winds,  no  vessel  could  stem. 

The  Emperor  Pedro  I,  it  may  be  remarked,  had  taken 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  339 

some  pains  to  learn  the  English  language,  and  in  his 
younger  days  he  studied  this  under  Father  Tilbury,  an 
English  priest  resident  in  Rio.  At  a  later  period  he  re- 
sumed his  acquaintance  with  the  language  in  less  academic 
circumstances.  His  fount  of  knowledge  then  was  an  Eng- 
lish groom,  whose  linguistic  specialty  most  unfortunately 
consisted  in  a  liberal  stock  of  expletives  and  adjectival 
Billingsgate ! 

Thus  it  would  happen  that  not  only  the  Emperor,  but 
the  dainty  and  charming  Empress  as  well,  would  inter- 
lard their  English  conversation  with  the  most  appalling 
oaths  and  the  most  vulgar  solecisms  under  the  impression 
that  these  were  mere  colloquial  amenities!  The  story 
sounds  almost  too  humorous  to  be  founded  on  fact,  but  it 
is  given  on  good  authority,  and  is,  I  believe,  perfectly 
true.  But  the  sensations  of  such  British  as  listened  to 
these  strings  of  unconscious  oaths  without  daring  to  ex- 
plain their  real  meaning  to  these  royal  victims  of  a 
groom's  tongue  must  have  been  curious! 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE    BRITISH    IN    BRAZIL    (v) 

The  British  fleet  and  Portuguese  royalty — The  abdication  of  Pedro  I — 
His  relations  with  his  subjects — Movements  of  the  diplomatic  corps 
— Attitude  of  the  United  States  minister — Arrival  of  the  royal  mes- 
sengers on  board  H.M.S.  Warspite — Description  of  the  occurrences 
by  one  of  the  Warspite's  oflicers — Conferences  vi^ith  the  French  admiral 
— Portuguese  merchants  and  officers  seek  the  protection  of  the  Brit- 
ish vessel — The  Braganga  family  arrives  on  board  the  Warspite — 
Their  reception — Humorous  account  by  a  spectator — Impression  made 
by  one  of  the  Warspite's  officers — Conferences  with  the  French  admiral 
— Incidents  attending  the  arrival — Pedro's  philosophy — How  he  oc- 
cupied himself  with  his  courtiers — What  his  trunks  revealed — Epi- 
sodes on  the  deck  of  the  Warspite — Pedro's  speech  at  a  lev^e — A 
dramatic  interlude — The  Emperor  exhibits  the  remnant  of  his  army 
— Account  of  the  abdication  by  Kidder  and  Fletcher — The  guests  of 
the  Warspite — Duties  of  some  members  of  the  crew — The  royal  fam- 
ily is  dunned  by  creditors  from  the  shore — Methods  by  which  Pedro 
comforted  his  consort — The  Emperor  attends  to  business — Some  finan- 
cial transactions — Scenes  in  Rio — Triumphal  entry  of  the  Child- 
Emperor  Pedro  II — Some  details  of  the  procession  and  of  the  decora- 
tions— Proclamation  of  an  actor — How  the  Empress  learned  of  what 
was  happening  on  shore — Pedro's  remarkable  behavior  on  the  War- 
spite— Further  dramatic  episodes — Uneasiness  in  Rio — Fatal  riot- 
ing— The  royal  family  prepare  to  sail — Manner  in  which  the  Emperor 
parted  from  the  remnant  of  his  army — An  imperial  packing  up — 
Some  ludicrous  incidents — Complications  of  etiquette — Transfer  of 
the  imperial  party  from  the  Warspite  to  a  French  frigate — Episodes 
of  the  leave-taking — Departure  of  the  royal  family  from  Brazil. 

WHETHER  from  mere  intuition,  or  from  a 
policy  of  profound  foresight,  the  British  fleet 
seemed  to  be  invariably  at  hand  when  any 
question  arose  of  the  conveyance  of  Portuguese  or 
Brazilian  royalty!  So  it  happened  in  1831  when  the 
Emperor  Pedro  was  about  to  abdicate  his  throne  in  favor 
of  his  infant  son  and  to  shake  the  dust  of  Brazil  from 
his  feet,  he  turned  to  Mr.   Aston,  the   British  charge 

340 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  341 

d'affaires,  and,  indicating  the  British  fleet  at  anchor  in 
the  bay  of  Rio  de  Janeiro,  exclaimed,  *'Let  us  send  to 
Admiral  Baker  for  some  boats ! ' ' 

This  was  easier  said  than  done,  for  a  wide  breach 
yawned  between  Pedro  and  his  subjects,  and  Pedro's  few 
adherents  that  remained  at  the  palace  regarded  with 
dismay  the  turmoil  in  the  streets,  where  the  populace  had 
taken  matters  into  their  own  hands.  Pedro  was  now  in  a 
fever  to  leave  the  town  which  had  shown  itself  so  un- 
appreciative  of  his  somewhat  mixed  virtues.  He  impa- 
tiently waved  aside  the  suggestion  of  the  British  charge 
d'affaires  that  there  was  no  need  for  so  very  hasty  a 
departure.  At  length  a  young  captain  of  artillery  and  a 
chamberlain  of  stronger  nerve  than  the  rest  came  for- 
ward to  solve  the  difficulty,  and  the  message  was  sent. 

Pedro  had  his  faults,  but  a  lack  of  personal  bravery 
was  not  among  them.  On  more  than  one  occasion  he  had 
displayed  high  physical  courage,  but  now  the  situation 
seemed  to  inspire  him  with  a  sudden  species  of  panic, 
and  scarcely  had  the  messengers  left  when  he  ordered 
carriages  to  be  in  readiness  to  convey  himself,  his  family, 
and  his  suite  to  the  beach. 

In  the  meantime  the  ministers  of  the  European  powers 
met  in  a  body  in  order  to  impress  the  need  for  public 
order  upon  the  revolutionists,  and  to  wait  upon  the  Em- 
peror to  find  out  from  his  own  lips  if  he  had  really  ab- 
dicated. Mr.  Brown,  the  American  charge  d'affaires, 
held  strictly  aloof  from  all  interference  with  the  move- 
ment, and  his  abstention  gained  him  a  wide  popularity 
among  the  Brazilians. 

In  the  circumstances  it  was  but  natural  that  the  mon- 
archy of  Brazil  should  have  been  regarded  coldly  by  the 
United  States.  Seen  through  North  American  spectacles, 
Brazil  of  that  period  was  a  royal  weed  intruding  in  a 
gaVden  of  republics.  The  United  States  minister,  in  con- 
sequence, was  in  search  of  no  metaphorical  earth  with 
which  to  bank  up  its  loosening  roots! 


342     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

After  this  the  scene  may  be  transferred  to  H.M.S.  War- 
spite,  on  whose  trim  deck  in  the  middle  of  the  night  a  gi- 
gantic master-at-arms  was  holding  a  lantern  to  the  faces 
of  two  uniformed  Brazilians  who  had  come  out  from  the 
shore  in  a  boat.  They  delivered  a  message  from  Dom 
Pedro,  begging  that  boats  might  be  sent,  if  possible  before 
daylight,  for  the  conveyance  of  the  royal  family  and  the 
remnants  of  the  court  from  the  shore  to  the  Warspite. 
After  some  unavoidable  delay,  owing  to  the  fact  that 
Admiral  Baker  was  on  shore  at  the  time,  and  that  it  was 
diplomatically  essential  to  communicate  with  the  French 
flagship  which  lay  at  anchor  near  by,  the  Warspite  awoke 
to  action. 

For  the  remaining  events  of  that  notable  flitting  we 
may  rely  on  the  description  of  one  of  the  Warspite' s  offi- 
cers whose  services  as  interpreter  were  brought  into 
requisition.  It  will  be  seen  from  his  account  that  our 
naval  spectator  was  endowed  with  some  humor  as  well 
as  with  a  keen  gift  of  observation.  It  is  fortunate  for 
posterity  that  he  was  present,  for  his  remarks  show  the 
closest  appreciation  of  the  tragedy  as  well  as  the  lighter 
vein  of  the  situation.     He  says : 

''The  dead  silence  in  which  our  good  ship  lay  buried 
was  now  suddenly  broken  by  a  shrill  call.  .  .  .  The  Ad- 
miral sent  an  order  to  despatch  two  armed  boats  and  to 
inform  the  French  commander-in-chief  of  it.  The  latter 
was  also  to  be  asked  whether  he  was  going  to  San  Chris- 
tavao  himself  or  how  he  intended  to  arrange  matters; 
since  according  to  the  latest  agreement  both  were  to  act 
in  strict  accordance.  I  was  desired  to  accompany  the 
acting  lieutenant  for  the  purpose  of  translating  the  mes- 
sage and  the  answer.  When  we  came  on  board  the 
Dryade,  a  large  double  banked  60-gun  frigate,  ...  we 
found  all  the  Frenchmen  on  their  legs.  Although  rather 
early  (2  a.m.)  they  were  dressed  as  for  full  parade,  and 
in  high  glee.  The  flattering  idea  of  seeing  a  new  edition 
of  their  own  glorious  trois  jours  published  in  the  New 


/ 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  343 

World  evidently  filled  them  with  the  utmost  delight.  We 
perceived  this  plainly  enough  even  in  speaking  to  the 
Contre-Admiral,  the  Captain  Le  Tourneur,  from  whom 
we  learned  that  they  were  likewise  sending  two  boats  now, 
and  after  that  their  ' chaloupe  montee  plusieurs  cannon- 
ades' in  order  to  protect  the  embarkation  of  their  majes- 
ties, if  by  chance  it  should  be  opposed  by  the  mob. 

''When  we  returned  to  board  the  War  spite  we  met  our 
Commander-in-Chief,  accompanied  by  the  Captain.  Both 
repaired  to  the  French  flagship,  where  a  nocturnal  naval 
and  diplomatic  cabinet  council  was  held. 

''I  now  stood  leaning  on  the  poop-nettings  and  listened 
to  the  violent  dashing  of  oars  produced  by  the  four  allied 
boats,  which  were  hastily  pulling  toward  the  Ilha  dos 
Ratos,  until  they  were  lost  in  heaviness  and  darkness.  .  .  . 

''The  imperial  palace  of  Boa  Vista  or  San  Christavao 
was  lying  half  an  English  mile  from  the  beach  and  four 
miles  west  of  the  city.  The  latter  was  situated  in  a 
straight  line  between  it  and  our  ship.  It  was  a  round- 
about way  by  water,  and  more  than  seven  miles  pulling 
with  a  strong  ebb  running. 

"The  arrival  of  our  expected  illustrious  refugees  was 
long  preceded  by  that  of  several  Portuguese  merchants 
and  officers,  who  came  to  seek  an  asylum  against  assassin- 
ation. But  the  Admiral  desired  me  to  explain  to  them 
that  he  and  the  ministers  had  agreed  to  remain  perfectly 
neutral  in  any  struggle  that  might  ensue  between  the 
Lusitanian  and  Brazilian  parties,  and  he  requested  them 
to  leave  the  ship  instantly.  They  went  away  amid  much 
lamentations  and  loud  requests  to  Heaven  to  protect  them. 
I  became  affected  by  these  painful  transactions  and  ad- 
vised the  poor  fellows  to  keep  themselves  quietly  in  their 
boats  at  a  short  distance  from  us ;  assuring  them  that  they 
were  secure  for  the  moment  lying  under  the  guns  of  the 
British  flagship.  ..." 

At  daybreak  on  the  7th  of  April,  when  the  thunder  of 
the  morning  guns  had  scarcely  died  away,  four  boats  were 


344     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

seen  pulling  toward  the  fleet  from  the  shore.  A  rapid 
survey  convinced  the  fleet  that  this  was  the  actual  arrival 
of  the  royal  party,  and  both  the  British  and  French 
admirals  prepared  to  receive  their  distinguished  guests. 
The  Royal  Marines  were  turned  out  and  stood  on  guard, 
while  every  oflBcer  stood  smart  and  resplendent. 

The  barge  which  contained  the  Braganca  family  now 
came  sweeping  alongside  the  Warspite.  Everything  was 
prepared  for  their  reception.  The  sailors  stood  at  the 
salute  and  the  marines  presented  arms.  Admiral  Baker, 
with  respectful  cordiality,  descended  the  accommodation 
ladder  to  assist  the  Empress  out  of  the  boat.  At  this 
point  I  must  retire  in  favor  of  our  naval  chronicler,  who 
has  indeed  depicted  the  scene  with  a  humorous  frankness 
which  no  doubt  fits  it  very  well,  and  which,  in  any  case, 
relieves  the  present  writer  of  all  responsibility!  Here 
is  his  account: 

'' Admiral  Baker  went  down  the  accommodation  ladder 
to  assist  the  Empress  out  of  the  boat;  but  Dom  Pedro, 
with  his  usual  presence  of  mind,  pulled  her  back,  saying 
in  Portuguese :  'Recollect  my  dear,  you  have  no  breeches 
on.'  He  then  turned  to  our  captain  who  was  with  them 
and  called  for  a  chair  to  have  her  Majesty  hoisted  in. 
That  officer  touched  his  cocked  hat  in  regretting  that  such 
an  article  was  not  to  be  had,  and  assured  him  that  the 
ladder  was  quite  safe.  Dom  Pedro  exclaimed,  very  an- 
grily, 'Mais  elle  n'a  point  de  pantalon.'  His  sister,  the 
Marchioness  de  Louie,  now  respectfully  scolded  her  '  cJier 
frere,'  for  making  a  noise  about  such  a  bagatelle,  and 
swore  she  had  been  herself  the  other  day  'sans  calecons' 
up  and  do\\Ti  this  very  ladder,  and  never  experienced  the 
least  inconvenience.  The  Empress,  upon  this,  took  the 
Admiral's  arm,  and  ascended  it,  whilst  her  careful  and 
august  husband  kept  grumbling  about  the  catastrophe." 

It  is  obvious  that  Pedro's  periodical  troublesome  lack 
of  dignity  was  at  the  moment  asserting  itself  somewhat 
strongly.     Indeed,  it  would  be  absurd  to  attempt  to  es- 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  345 

timate  his  conduct  as  an  emperor  by  the  grotesque  scenes 
in  which  he  participated  on  board  the  Warspite.  The 
finest  men  have  their  weakest  moments,  and  this  crisis 
in  his  affairs  seems  to  have  caught  Pedro  in  an  almost 
clownishly  ridiculous  and  fussy  mood.  Nevertheless  the 
solemnity  of  the  occasion  was  impressed  in  various  ways. 
The  Portuguese  national  anthem  was  struck  up  by  the 
bands  as  the  Empress  set  foot  on  the  Warspite,  and  the 
sight  of  the  distress  of  this  charming  lady  moved  the  en- 
tire ship's  company.  Indeed,  the  soft-hearted  tars  gave 
audible  signs  of  their  feelings,  and  on  all  sides,  from  the 
young  officers  to  the  hardened  quarter-masters,  handker- 
chiefs were  freely  displayed.  Scarcely  eighteen  months 
had  gone  by  since  they  had  seen  her,  a  happy  and  wel- 
comed bride,  entering  the  harbor  she  was  now  so  sadly 
leaving. 

Leaning  on  the  arm  of  the  British  admiral,  her  face 
was  deadly  pale,  and  she  was  unable  to  restrain  the 
tears  from  dropping  from  her  eyes.  She  passed  along 
the  front  of  the  Eoyal  Marines,  her  fair  hair  shining  on 
her  bowed  head,  side  by  side  with  the  silvery  locks  of  the 
Admiral.  When  she  arrived  at  the  door  of  the  cabin 
which  had  been  prepared  for  her,  the  French  admiral  ad- 
vanced to  play  his  part.  It  had  been  his  British  con- 
frere's duty  to  receive  the  Empress  Amelie  at  the  foot  of 
the  ladder — it  was  his  to  escort  her  to  her  cabin. 

As  it  happened,  the  French  admiral  was  a  very  old 
friend  of  the  Empress.  He  had  been  aide-de-camp  to  her 
father  during  the  expedition  to  Moscow.  By  a  curious 
coincidence  this  amphibious  warrior  had  actually  held  her 
in  his  arms  on  many  occasions  when  she  was  a  small  child. 
The  Empress  tottered  toward  him  with  hands  out- 
stretched, and  the  old  sailor  was  himself  somewhat  over- 
come at  meeting  her  in  such  tragic  circumstances.  Tak- 
ing her  hand  he  shook  it  heartily,  saying,  *' Courage,  je 
vous  en  prie.  Courage!  Resignation!"  But  for  once 
the  unfortunate  empress's  resolution  failed  her.    She 


346     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

burst  into  sobs,  sank  down  on  the  sofa,  and,  hiding  her 
fair  face  in  her  handkerchief,  gave  herself  up  to  bitter 
grief. 

The  next  to  board  the  Warspite  was  the  young  Queen 
of  Portugal,  Dona  Maria.  She,  although  less  moved  than 
the  Empress,  as  was  natural  to  her  twelve  years,  was 
sufficiently  sad  of  face,  and  appeared  miserable  and 
frightened.  It  was  the  Emperor  himself  who  supplied  the 
other  side  of  the  picture. 

He  wore  a  brown  frock  coat,  a  round  hat,  and  came 
jauntily  up  the  side  of  the  ship,  much  as  though  he  were 
starting  on  some  chance  picnic.  He  was,  indeed,  per- 
fectly tranquil  but  somewhat  absentminded,  since  he  had 
much  to  attend  to  and  was  apparently  anxious  not  to  lose 
any  opportunity  of  carrying  through  his  final  financial 
transactions  in  the  comparatively  short  time  which  re- 
mained to  him. 

Entering  the  cabin,  he  came  upon  his  sorrowing  wife. 
He  embraced  the  recumbent  form  en  passant  and  ejac- 
ulated in  somewhat  trite  consolation,  ''Be  tranquil,  you 
will  see  your  mother  again  very  soon. ' '  But  Amelie  was 
not  to  be  so  lightly  comforted.  She  was  grieving  less  for 
herself  than  for  the  child  whom  she  was  expecting  and 
who  was  thus  to  be  cut  off  from  the  honors  of  Pedro's 
lost,  or  rather  rejected,  empire. 

A  study  of  Pedro,  just  at  this  period,  reveals  how  many 
sides  to  his  nature  it  is  possible  for  a  man  to  possess. 
Although  he  had  shown  no  little  fussiness  concerning  the 
embarkation  of  the  luggage,  he  seems  to  have  retained  his 
presence  of  mind  in  all  other  respects,  notwithstanding 
the  fact  that  a  small  hostile  crowd  had  assembled  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  palace  of  San  Christovao,  and  had 
burst  out  into  yells  and  hisses. 

It  was  the  Admiral's  barge  which  had  been  prepared 
for  the  reception  of  the  royal  party,  but  at  the  sight  of 
this  the  Emperor  made  an  unexpected  protest.  This 
barge  had  a  gun  mounted  in  its  bows,  and  he  feared  that. 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  347 

should  tie  depart  in  this,  it  might  be  said  that  he  had  fled 
in  an  armed  boat,  fearful  of  the  Brazilians.  He  chose, 
therefore,  the  second  barge,  which  was  without  any  such 
significant  weapon.  Thus  with  an  eye  to  the  verdict  of 
futurity,  Pedro  left  the  shores  of  his  surrendered  em- 
pire. 

Eoyal  families,  even  in  adversity,  are  seldom  unen- 
cumbered with  adherents,  and  this  the  Warspite  was  now 
destined  to  find  out.  Her  decks  soon  became  crowded  to 
suffocation  by  members  of  the  suite  and  other  refugees 
of  all  descriptions,  who  for  some  reason  or  other — in  this 
particular  case  usually  an  interested  one — clung  to  the 
imperial  family. 

Dom  Pedro,  himself,  now  became  extremely  busy  after 
his  own  fashion.  He  went  ceaselessly  to  and  fro,  in- 
specting and  overhauling  his  countless  chests  and  boxes. 
He  frequently  ran  up  the  ladder  in  order  to  carry  one  of 
these  boxes  with  his  own  royal  hands.  According  once 
again  to  our  naval  chronicler,  ''He  ran  to  and  fro, 
quarreled  with  the  chamberlains,  scolded  his  domestics, 
hailed  people  alongside,  and  made  a  great  noise."  It  is 
sentences  such  as  this  that  incarnate  our  royal  traveler  in 
a  joyful  ecstasy  of  fussing. 

The  great  heaps  of  baggage,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  told 
their  own  tale ;  they  were  fitted  with  new  frames  fastened 
to  the  sides,  and  fresh  pieces  of  wood  were  attached  to 
the  bottoms  of  the  leather  trunks.  Thus  was  revealed  the 
preparation  which  had  doubtless  been  effected  by  Pedro 
himself,  whose  talent  as  a  joiner  was  considerable.  If 
ever  there  were  straws  which  showed  in  which  direction 
the  wind  had  blown,  surely  none  were  more  accurately 
represented  than  by  this  huge  mass  of  carefully  pre- 
pared portmanteaus  and  trunks ! 

About  noon  Pedro  was  awakened  from  his  preoccupa- 
tion concerning  his  luggage  by  the  sound  of  guns  fired 
from  the  shore :  he  ran  hurriedly  to  the  side  of  the  vessel. 
The  noise  created  considerable  consternation  among  the 


348     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

fugitive  Portuguese.  Presently  it  was  discovered  that 
these  were  salutes  being  fired  in  honor  of  little  Pedro — 
the  little  Pedro  who  had  been  largely  overlooked  by  his 
father  in  the  course  of  the  past  few  strenuous  hours,  and 
who  had  now  been  brought  from  Sao  Christovao  and 
shown  to  the  people.  The  inhabitants  of  Rio  had  lost 
no  time  in  offering  their  devotion  to  the  first  and  only 
white  monarch  ever  born  on  American  soil! 

Even  after  this  interlude  it  was  some  time  before  Pedro 
found  leisure  to  return  to  the  inspection  of  his  baggage, 
for  ambassadors,  envoys,  ministers,  and  other  officials 
now  came  off  in  flocks  to  the  War  spite.  Pedro,  seeing 
that  the  ceremony  was  unavoidable,  now  prepared  him- 
self for  a  species  of  levee.  He  took  his  stand  between 
the  two  scuttles  on  the  quarter-deck,  and  here  he  received 
all  those  officials  who  came  trooping  up  from  the  com- 
panion-ladder. His  attitude  appears  to  have  been  de- 
cidedly casual,  for  he  returned  their  deep  official  bows 
merely  with  a  slight  nod.  The  only  person  whom  he 
favored  with  anything  like  a  profound  inclination  was 
the  papal  legate,  the  Archbishop  of  Tarsis. 

Presently  a  formidable  circle  of  diplomats  and  others 
surrounded  the  ex-Emperor,  and  he  began  to  deliver  an 
unofficial  speech,  holding  one  hand  in  his  breeches  pocket, 
and  twirling  his  bushy  mustachios  with  the  other.  The 
scene  must  have  been  curious,  for  Pedro  spoke  in  jerks 
and  casual  conversational  tones.  The  following  is  rep- 
resented to  be  more  or  less  the  actual  wording  of  some 
of  his  phrases : 

*'I  expect  there  will  be  a  revolution  in  this  country 
such  as  took  place  in  France  last  year.  I  have  been  be- 
trayed for  a  long  while.  The  Brazilians  do  not  like  me : 
they  look  upon  me  as  a  Portuguese.  But  I  have  never 
been  afraid  of  them :  I  went  down  to  the  mines.  I  went 
into  the  streets  the  day  before  yesterday,  when  they  were 
fighting  on  all  sides.  What  on  earth  could  I  do,  when 
the  people  assembled  in  the  Campo  de  Santa  Anna  had 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  349 

the  impudence  to  tell  me  to  dismiss  my  ministers?  I 
had  n't  enough  troops  to  disperse  a  mob  like  that.  I  was 
quite  ready  to  put  myself  at  the  head  of  my  guard,  but 
—  it  had  left  me." 

Having  concluded  this  portion  of  his  oration,  Pedro 
apparently  felt  himself  somewhat  at  a  loss.  As  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  he  had  very  little  to  say  and  was  striving  for 
as  many  words  as  possible  to  cover  as  few  facts  as  pos- 
sible. At  this  point  he  was  seized  with  an  inspiration. 
His  eye  had  lit  upon  four  soldiers,  who  were  lying  in  a 
state  of  torpor,  stretched  on  the  deck  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  mainmast  of  the  Warspite.  These  he  hailed, 
and,  seeing  that  they  responded  with  inadequate  alac- 
rity, he  ran  to  them,  hauled  them  with  considerable  dif- 
ficulty on  to  their  legs,  pulled,  and  straightened  them  into 
a  line,  and  then  seized  them  by  their  shoulders  and  en- 
deavored to  give  them  a  martial  appearance,  which 
seemed  quite  foreign  to  their  nature. 

The  spectators  had  by  this  time  become  somewhat  em- 
barrassed, for  the  scene  was,  to  say  the  least  of  it,  unex- 
pected. Pedro  was  determined  to  see  it  through  to  the 
bitter  end.  He  pointed  out  the  four  unhappy  men  with 
a  dramatic  gesture.  The  unfortunate  beings,  as  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  had  been  left  behind  at  Sao  Christavao  by 
their  comrades,  who  had  not  troubled  to  wake  them: 
hence  their  presence  on  board.  But  of  this  Pedro  was 
either  ignorant  or  careless,  very  probably  the  former. 

'^Yes,"  continued  the  Emperor,  ''all  my  troops  have 
left  me  except  these  brave  gargons."  He  turned  to 
the  men.  "Joao,  Antonio,  Manoel,  Luiz,  you  indeed, 
have  now  reason  for  pride!"  Seeing  that  this  left  the 
four  martial  beings  comparatively  cold,  he  turned  again 
to  the  spectators  and  continued:  ''Here  are  the  re- 
mains of  my  army.  What  could  I  do  against  the  popu- 
lace?" 

The  diplomats  preserved  a  discreet  silence.  It  was, 
indeed,  not  their  metier  to  reply  to  questions  such  as 


350     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

these.  Pedro,  at  this  tacit  acknowledgment  of  his  help- 
lessness, added  with  much  satisfaction,  ''So  I  abdicated 
in  favor  of  my  son  who  was  born  in  Brazil,  and  they 
have  this  morning  proclaimed  him  emperor. ' ' 

Pedro  had  finished.  With  a  curt  bow  he  dismissed 
his  audience  and  withdrew  to  his  cabin. 

I  give  the  Emperor's  words  on  the  authority  of  our 
naval  chronicler.  It  is  just  possible,  of  course,  that  his 
sense  of  humor  has  urged  him  to  overcolor  the  picture 
just  a  little  here.  It  certainly  bears  little  resemblance 
to  the  vision  conjured  up  by  the  words  of  Kidder  and 
Fletcher,  who  say  of  Pedro  at  this  juncture  that  ''at 
length,  like  the  noble  stag  of  Landseer,  singled  out  by  the 
hounds,  he  stood  alone.  Deserted,  harassed,  irritated, 
and  fatigued  beyond  description,  with  sadness,  yet  with 
grace,  he  yielded  to  the  circumstances,  and  took  the 
only  measure  consistent  with  his  convictions  and  the 
dignity  of  his  imperial  office." 

Messrs.  Kidder  and  Fletcher,  of  course,  had  not  been 
on  board  the  Warspite.  But,  if  they  had,  their  verdict 
might  well  have  remained  unaltered.  They  might  with 
entire  justice  have  attributed  these  totally  unstage-like 
moments  to  the  surprisingly  wide  sweep  of  the  human 
temperamental  pendulum!  It  seemed  that  there  were 
times  when  the  further  Pedro  swung  himself  into  the 
heroic,  the  more  rapidly  he  came  tumbling  back,  head 
over  heels,  into  the  ridiculous — and  vice  versa. 

All  this  time  the  ship's  carpenters  of  the  Warspite 
had  been  busy,  and  tremendous  efforts  had  been  made 
to  accommodate  the  crowd  of  uninvited  guests  that  now 
thronged  the  vessel.  The  least  concerned  of  all  seemed 
Pedro's  daughter,  the  young  Queen  of  Portugal,  who 
very  soon  after  her  arrival  on  board  obtained  some  fish- 
ing lines,  and  spent  a  considerable  portion  of  her  time 
in  angling  from  the  stern-walk  of  the  vessel.  But  the 
poor  girl  was  evidently  tiring  of  her  surroundings,  and 
of  the  incessant  bustle  which  pervaded  them. 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  351 

For  a  really  racy  description  of  these  circumstances 
I  must  again  refer  to  the  naval  chronicler  several  times 
previously  quoted : 

"It  would  have  been  confusion  worse  confounded," 
says  that  observant  person,  "if  that  smart  and  true- 
blooded  British  officer  (the  Warspite's  captain)  had  not 
kept  such  excellent  order  among  the  multitude  of  stran- 
gers, which  amounted  to  upwards  of  one  hundred  and 
fifty  persons  of  all  ranks,  ages,  and  sexes.  His  own 
cabin  consisting  of  two  partitions  assumed  the  char- 
acter of  an  Eastern  harem,  filled  as  it  was  with  Por- 
tuguese, Brazilians,  Germans,  French  and  Negro 
females,  who  were  holding  the  offices  of  ladies-in- 
waiting,  governesses,  handmaids,  and  chambermaids, 
dry  and  wet  nurses  or  washing  women,  to  all  the  differ- 
ent majesties,  highnesses  and  excellencies.  The  oldest 
sergeant  of  the  Royal  Marines  got  promoted  to  the  rank 
of  acting  'Kislar  Aga'  or  quasi-chief  of  eunuchs.  He 
was  ordered  to  keep  a  sharp  eye  upon  the  door  of  that 
floating  seraglio,  where  moreover,  a  vigilant  sentry  was 
posted,  who,  with  his  ramrod,  fended  off  the  male  part 
of  the  community. ' ' 

It  will  be  seen  from  all  these  circumstances  that  as  a 
handy-man  the  British  sailorman  proved  himself  as  ef- 
ficient on  this  occasion  as  he  has  proved  on  many  other 
occasions. 

While  all  this  was  occurring  on  the  Warspite,  there 
were  many  citizens  ashore  who  viewed  the  departure  of 
the  royal  family  with  concern  and  even  with  active  dis- 
may. Among  these  were  trades  people  who  had  claims 
on  some  of  its  members.  Dom  Pedro  and  his  sister,  the 
Marchioness  de  Louie,  are  said  to  have  been  keenly 
mourned  by  these  interested  citizens !  This  unfortunate 
lady,  indeed,  had  been  living  on  credit  for  some  time, 
and  now  shore-boats  laden  to  the  gunwale  with  credit- 
ors and  duns  floated  about  the  harassed  Warspite,  and 
clamorous  and  importunate  traders  demanded  that  Dom 


352     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

Pedro  and  his  family  should  concede  them  their  rights 
on  the  subject  while  there  yet  remained  time. 

The  Empress  Amelie  herself,  notwithstanding  her  sor- 
row and  her  condition,  was  plagued  almost  to  distraction 
by  these  clamorous  creditors.  Time  after  time  the  un- 
fortunate lady  appealed  to  her  husband.  But  Pedro 
was  ever  better  at  collecting  money  than  at  disbursing 
it,  and  now  showed  himself  reluctant  in  the  extreme  to 
sign  the  necessary  bills. 

From  time  to  time  the  Empress's  feelings  completely 
overcame  her,  and  when  pestered  more  than  usual  she 
would  endeavor  to  withdraw  to  her  private  apartment. 
On  such  occasions,  to  do  him  justice,  Pedro's  affections 
overcame  his  financial  considerations.  He  would  re- 
strain his  afflicted  spouse,  and,  drawing  her  back,  impress 
upon  her  a  hearty  kiss  before  all  the  spectators,  and 
then  yield  to  her  desires  and  satisfy  one  creditor  more. 

On  the  following  day  Pedro  held  a  levee  of  an  entirely 
different  kind  to  that  previously  attended  by  the  politi- 
cians.    Once  again  I  quote  from  the  naval  authority: 

**The  ex-monarch  held  a  sort  of  levee  in  the  course  of 
the  following  day,  where  he  received  a  parcel  of  money- 
brokers,  Jews,  slave-dealers  and  stock-jobbers,  who  came 
on  board  to  see  how  the  wind  was.  .  .  .  When  he  per- 
ceived Mr.  Buschental,  a  German  Israelite,  among  the 
crowd,  he  exclaimed  with  much  vivacity,  'Oho,  Senhor 
Buschental,  you  are  here  too !  I  assure  you  if  I  had  not 
been  absent  in  Minas  Geraes,  you  would  never  have  suc- 
ceeded in  that  job  with  the  copper  money  of  the 
bank.'  The  Jew  did  not  blush  but  he  looked  blue,  to  the 
great  amusement  of  the  bystanders." 

While  these  curious  scenes  were  occurring  on  board 
the  Warspite,  Rio  de  Janeiro  had  given  itself  up  to  re- 
joicing. "The  King  is  afloat:  God  save  the  King!" 
was  the  cry  of  the  townspeople,  and  the  streets,  festooned 
with  coffee  branches,  were  made  to  glow  with  colored 
silks,  while  the  balconies  were  thronged  with  senoritas 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  353 

in  all  their  finery  of  brilliant  dresses,  garlands,  fluttering 
fans,  and  feather  flowers. 

The  officers  of  the  Warspite  whom  I  have  already  quot- 
ed had  gone  ashore  with  a  number  of  his  brother  officers 
to  see  the  sights.  He  witnessed  the  triumphal  entry  into 
his  capital  of  the  new  emperor,  Dom  Pedro  II,  the  little 
lad  of  five  and  a  half  years  of  age.  At  this  period  it 
seems  to  have  been  willed  by  the  gods  of  the  ridiculous 
that  no  event,  however  fateful,  should  occur  in  the  capi- 
tal of  Brazil  unless  it  were  accompanied  by  some  mar- 
ring touches  of  unconscious  humor. 

The  opening  group  of  the  procession  of  the  child-em- 
peror was  composed  of  justices  of  the  peace  bearing 
green  flags  in  their  hands.  Alas!  many  of  the  worthy 
justices  were  in  acute  and  unstable  trouble  with  their 
mounts,  and  when  the  cavalcade  surged  uncomfortably 
past,  there  rose  an  irrepressible  titter  from  the  British 
naval  officers,  more  especially  from  the  midshipmen,  who 
recognized  with  no  little  malicious  glee  the  livery  stable 
steeds  from  whose  tricks  their  own  equilibrium  had  fre- 
quently suffered. 

As  for  the  poor  child,  Pedro  II  himself,  what  a  figure 
was  this !  A  tiny  infant  in  a  huge  state  coach,  dragged 
by  four  strings  of  excited  mulattoes!  He  cried,  prob- 
ably because  weeping  was  part  of  the  routine  of  his  ten- 
der years,  and  at  the  same  time  waved  a  white  handker- 
chief, doubtless  instigated  strenuously  to  this  by  his 
nurse,  who  sat  opposite  him. 

The  tender  hearted  Brazilians,  every  man  and  woman 
of  their  number  a  child-adorer,  were  altogether  over- 
come by  the  sight,  and  even  the  choir  that  accompanied 
the  procession  was  by  no  means  immune.  Its  trium- 
phant chant  occasionally  died  away  to  an  emotional 
quiver.  Can  one  conceive  a  stranger  medley  of  events, 
when  all  the  while  the  mob  of  blacks  were  thronging  the 
Emperor's  palace  and  shouldering  their  way  more  or  less 
where  they  would? 


354     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

Even  the  walls  were  eloquent.  According  to  the  same 
writer,  on  many  of  these  were  pasted  posters  advertising 
a  piece  to  be  performed  at  the  imperial  theater  of  Sao 
Pedro  de  Alcantara  that  night.  This  had  been  written  in 
feverish  haste  for  the  occasion,  and  was  entitled,  "The 
Downfall  of  the  Tyrant."  Could  London  with  all  its 
"cinemas"  produce  an  instance  to  beat  this  for  rapidity 
of  production !  That  an  entire  drama  should  be  written, 
dramatized',  cast,  and  performed  all  in  the  space  of  twen- 
ty-four hours  is  surely  a  breathless  triumph  —  a  thun- 
derbolt enterprise! 

Nor  was  this  all.  The  actor  who  was  cast  for  the  part 
of  the  tyrant  evidently  had  some  well-grounded  fears 
concerning  the  nature  of  his  reception  when  on  the 
boards.  Perhaps  his  confidence  in  his  histrionic  powers 
justified  his  doubts.  Perhaps,  on  the  other  hand,  he 
dreaded  lest  the  mere  part  in  which  his  lines  had  been 
cast  should  bring  outrage  upon  him.  At  all  events  he 
had  attached  to  the  poster  the  following  advertisement: 

Gentlemen, 

Allow  me  to  call  your  attention  to  the  circumstances  of  my 
performing  to-night  the  character  of  the  tyrant.  Heaven  is  my 
witness  that  there  is  nothing  tyrannical  about  me ;  my  heart  has 
always  beat  for  liberty,  and  our  glorious  Constitution.  The  atti- 
tudes which  I  shall  be  called  upon  to  assume  on  the  stage  are  in 
direct  opposition  to  my  real  feelings.  The  more  perfectly  I  shall 
have  the  honor  of  representing  the  monster  to  you,  the  more  I 
beg  to  disclaim  any  similarity  between  me  and  the  despot. 
Your  most  humble  servant, 

Jose  de  Baeros. 

What  species  of  reception  Jose  de  Barros  actually  met 
with  on  his  appearance  in  character  I  have  no  means  of 
knowing.  Let  us  trust  for  his  cautious  sake,  that  it  was 
as  unenthusiastic  as  he  desired ! 

These  scenes  appear  to  have  been  carefully  noted  by 
the  chronicler  from  the  Warspite.  He  had  been  ashore 
and  this  is  what  he  said  on  his  return : 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  355 

''The  Admiral's  eye  caught  me  as  I  came  upon  the 
quarter-deck.  He  asked  what  news  I  brought  from  the 
shore.  On  my  relating  what  I  had  seen,  he  took  me  into 
the  cabin,  where  he  introduced  me  to  the  Empress,  say- 
ing, 'Voila  Monsieur  X,  qui  a  tout  vu!'  She  nodded 
gracefully,  and  replied,  'Monsieur,  parle-t-il  francaisf 
Upon  this  hint  I  spake  French,  and  gave  her  ex-Majesty 
a  circumstantial  account  of  the  whole  turn-out,  which  she 
frequently  interrupted  by  putting  to  me  various  ques- 
tions about  the  appearance,  demeanor,  and  dress  of  the 
juvenile  emperor  and  his  three  elder  sisters,  the  Prin- 
cesses Francisco,  Paula,  and  Januaria.  She  enquired  re- 
specting the  attitude  and  behavior  of  the  new  regency,  the 
officers,  troops,  armed  people,  and  spectators. 

' '  I  told  her  that  the  public  had  been  swimming  in  tears, 
and  the  scene  proved  'tout  a  fait  touchante/  especially 
when  the  young  sovereign  was  carried  out  of  the  chapel 
in  the  arms  of  an  old  chamberlain.  I  assured  her  that  he 
then  looked  quite  'comme  un  ange  car  esse  par  des 
demons/  considering  that  a  phalanx  of  black  women 
made  a  loyal  attack  on  him,  in  order  to  kiss  the  seam  of 
his  garment,  etc.  She  was  evidently  much  interested 
and  moved,  and  'gave  me  for  my  pains  a  world  of  sighs,' 
as  Othello  would  say.  My  vanity  was  not  a  little  flat- 
tered by  the  effect  which  this  extempore  speech  of  mine 
produced  on  the  nerves  of  the  august  personage  before 
me.  I  was  just  going  to  continue  with  increased  elo- 
quence, when  Dom  Pedro  I,  with  a  boxful  of  silver  spoons 
and  forks  under  his  arm,  rushed  in  and  briskly  asked, 
'What  is  the  matter,  what  is  the  matter?'  (Que  tern, 
que  temf)  On  my  stating  that,  by  order  of  the  Admiral, 
I  was  relating  to  her  Majesty  the  events  of  this  day,  he 
exclaimed  impatiently,  'I  know  already!  I  know  every- 
thing! J  a  sei,  ja  sei  tudof  He  then  put  his  precious 
burden  on  the  table  and  added,  turning  toward  the  Em- 
press: 'N'importe,  mon  chere!  prenons  garde  a  nos 
affaires  ici!'    Upon  this  I  bowed  to  her,  and  withdrew. 


356     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

very  much  pleased  with  Amelia  and  my  own  insignificant 
person,  but  very  little  with  Pedro." 

On  the  Warspite,  many  of  the  events  continued  to  be 
of  the  comic  opera  order.  When  events  of  state  were  to 
the  fore,  Pedro's  energy  was  not  found  lacking,  it  must 
be  admitted ;  but  when  time  lay  more  idly  on  his  hands, 
he  comforted  his  restless  spirit  by  a  ceaseless  sequence 
of  poses. 

Thus  on  the  first  Sunday  of  his  board-ship  life,  he  de- 
sired to  see  the  Royal  Marines  drilled.  This  corps  was 
accordingly  mustered,  and  was  drilled  on  the  quarter 
deck.  Dom  Pedro  together  with  his  family  and  his  suite 
seated  themselves  on  the  poop  and  constituted  a  most 
appreciative  gallery.  Dom  Pedro,  as  usual,  was  inimit- 
able. He  had  borrowed  a  telescope,  a  yard  or  more  in 
length,  and  with  this  held  to  his  eye,  he  was  gazing  with 
intent  rapture  at  the  manceuvering  men.  When  the  per- 
formance was  over,  he  laid  down  his  spy-glass  with  a 
deep  sigh,  and  said  with  dramatic  emphasis,  "A  sover- 
eign who  has  such  troops  must  be  happy." 

All  this  while  it  must  not  be  thought  that  the  coy  ex- 
Emperor  was  being  neglected  by  the  people  on  shore.  It 
is  true  that  very  few  Brazilians  showed  themselves  on 
the  Warspite;  but  a  great  number  of  Portuguese  and 
many  foreigners  came  to  pay  their  respects  to  the  royal 
family.  The  sovereign  received  the  Portuguese  with 
effusion.  Some  he  embraced,  and  on  the  shoulders  of 
others  he  wept.  The  bystanders  remarked,  however, 
that  although  in  some  cases  these  tears  might  have  been 
genuine,  in  others  they  were  only  with  difficulty  squeezed 
to  the  surface,  and  perhaps  occasionally  did  not  make 
their  appearance  at  all. 

A  little  later  Dom  Pedro 's  former  field  marshal,  Count 
Rio  Pardo,  arrived  on  board  the  Warspite,  having  fled 
from  the  shore  as  he  had  reason  to  suspect  a  plot  to  as- 
sassinate him.  Dom  Pedro  employed  the  circumstance 
in  order  to  engineer  another  demonstration.     With  one 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  357 

arm  he  held  the  General  closely  embraced ;  with  the  other 
he  surrounded  the  shoulders  of  his  intimate  friend  and 
valet-de-chamhre,  Carlota.  Thus  supported  he  stood  be- 
tween them  absolutely  motionless  and  silent  for  more 
than  ten  minutes!  During  all  this  while  his  large  dark 
eyes  were  alternately  fastened  on  the  deck  at  his  feet 
and  on  the  sky  above. 

He  was  now  beginning  to  take  no  little  interest  in  the 
affairs  of  the  Warspite,  and  he  soon  became  so  accus- 
tomed to  his  surroundings  that  his  restless  spirit  could 
no  longer  keep  itself  tranquil.  Thus  one  night  at  eleven 
o'clock  he  hastened  all  round  the  ship  and  blew  all  the 
sentries'  lights  out!  He  explained  the  reason  for  this 
when  he  returned,  happy  in  the  consciousness  of  duty 
done,  to  the  quarter-deck.  This  procedure,  he  said,  was 
necessary  on  a  man-of-war  where  such  large  quantities 
of  gunpowder  were  stored ! 

What  was  one  to  do  with  a  guest  such  as  this?  Surely 
never  was  a  being  who  indulged  in  such  a  pure  debauch 
of  good  intentions  gone  astray!  Doubtless  some  of  the 
oflScers  of  the  Warspite  after  a  few  experiences  of  the 
kind  began  to  sympathize  somewhat  with  the  restlessness 
of  the  inhabitants  of  Rio  de  Janeiro. 

The  capital,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  instead  of  being  tran- 
quillized, was  suffering  from  another  panic  of  alarm.  It 
was  rumored  ashore  that  Dom  Pedro  had  already  re- 
pented of  his  abdication.  Groups  of  citizens  gathered 
again  in  consternation  in  the  famous  Campo  de  Santa 
Anna,  or,  as  it  was  now  termed,  Campo  da  Honra.  From 
there  the  reported  tidings  spread  like  wildfire.  The  ex- 
Emperor  was  determined  to  come  into  his  own  again! 
He  proposed  to  land  at  the  head  of  the  entire  marine 
force  of  the  British  and  French  squadrons ! 

The  crowd  heard  with  growing  anger  that  the  Portu- 
guese inhabitants  of  Eio  had  banded  together  to  assist 
their  monarch!  The  result  was  a  more  serious  bout  of 
rioting  than  before,  and  a  number  of  the  unfortunate 


358      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

Portuguese  were  murdered  on  the  night  following  this 
wild  statement.  However  baseless  were  these  rumors, 
it  was  becoming  evident  that  their  bare  existence  was 
causing  much  mischief,  and  both  the  British  and  French 
admirals  now  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  sooner  Dom 
Pedro  left  Brazil  the  better  it  would  be  for  that  country 
and  for  himself. 

After  much  talking  over  arrangements  with  the  august 
emigrant,  it  was  finally  decided  that  he  and  his  royal  wife 
should  sail  for  Europe  in  the  British  frigate  Volage,  and 
that  the  young  Queen  of  Portugal,  Dona  Maria,  and  her 
aunt,  the  Marchioness  of  Louie,  should  depart  in  the 
French  frigate  La  Seine  on  the  Wednesday  following. 
No  sooner  was  this  resolution  arrived  at  than  the  Ad- 
miral saw  to  it  that  it  was  posted  up  in  the  public  build- 
ings of  the  capital,  and  notified  in  the  leading  news- 
papers. The  effect  of  this  measure  was  to  pour  oil  on 
the  troubled  human  waters.  The  shedding  of  blood 
ceased  forthwith,  and  tranquillity  and  peace  returned  at 
length  to  Rio  de  Janeiro. 

Seeing  that  his  many  tasks  were  very  nearly  at  an  end, 
the  ex-Emperor  turned  to  a  matter  which  lay  near  to  his 
hand.  This  was  the  disposal  of  the  four  men  whom  he 
had  introduced  to  the  ministers  and  officials  as  his  army ! 
He  appears  to  have  been  unwilling  to  carry  the  quartette 
with  him  to  Europe.  Nothing  remained  then  but  to  pen- 
sion off  these  apparently  devoted  and  loyal  beings  — 
since  with  a  certain  lack  of  consideration  they  had  con- 
tinued to  remain  on  board  the  Warspite.  Pedro  handed 
them  their  pensions  in  a  lump  sum  which  amounted  to 
the  equivalent  of  seven  shillings  and  sixpence  apiece! 
He  then  sent  them  ashore  to  enjoy  this  somewhat  modest 
reward  of  a  faithfulness  —  which  in  itself  was  more 
moderate  than  he  had  known ! 

Pedro  had  written  his  farewell  letters:  he  was  now 
occupied  in  packing  up  his  goods  for  transshipment  from 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  359 

the  Warspite  to  the  Volage,  which  was  being  held  in  readi- 
ness for  his  reception.  So  here  we  have  Pedro  once 
again  breaking  into  another  outburst  of  his  unconscious 
clowning.  He  would  bustle  into  his  cabin  and  would  re- 
appear laden  with  all  kinds  of  ornaments  and  domestic 
implements.  Everything  which  he  seemed  specially  to 
cherish,  and  this  included  a  considerable  proportion  of 
his  total  possessions,  he  insisted  on  carrying  down  to  the 
boats  himself.  One  can  imagine  the  faces  of  the  officers 
and  the  crew,  and  the  hardly  concealed  grins  of  the  latter 
as  his  burdened  Majesty  passed  fussily  through  their 
midst. 

Occasionally  when  Dom  Pedro  had  unearthed  some  ob- 
ject which  he  considered  of  special  interest  he  would  in  a 
good-natured  but  quite  ludicrous  fashion  exhibit  it  to  the 
officers  on  the  quarter-deck,  and  thus  make  a  halt  in  his 
journeying.  One  of  these  treasures  was  a  cumbrous 
clock  which  he  insisted  on  winding  up  and  causing  to 
strike  for  the  edification  of  the  officers  of  the  Warspite, 
who  no  doubt  endeavored  to  show  as  much  delight  and 
interest  as  was  possible  under  the  circumstances.  After 
which,  having  exclaimed  that  it  was  a  dear  keepsake 
from  his  blessed  grandmamma,  the  Queen  of  Spain,  Pe- 
dro hastened  down  the  gangway  with  his  clock  and  re- 
turned in  search  of  further  objects  for  removal. 

The  British  and  French  diplomatic  corps  now  came 
off  from  the  shore  and  arrived  on  board  the  Warspite 
in  order  to  be  present  at  the  departure  of  the  Queen  of 
Portugal,  whom  the  French  admiral  Grivel  was  going  to 
escort  to  his  frigate  the  Seine  for  conveyance  to  Europe. 
This,  it  is  said,  was  the  ship  which  carried  Charles  X  the 
previous  year  to  England.  Moreover,  by  a  very  curious 
coincidence  there  were  anchored  together  in  the  harbor 
at  this  time  the  British  frigate  Undaunted  which  took 
Napoleon  Bonaparte  to  the  Island  of  Elba,  and  the 
French  brig  Inconstant  in  which  he  escaped  from  his 


360     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

captivity  at  that  place.  There  were,  indeed,  as  the  mate 
of  the  signals  on  board  the  Warspite  observed  '' plenty 
of  royal  mails  and  imperial  coaches"  in  the  harbor. 

The  abdication  of  Dom  Pedro  had  caused  some  diffi- 
culties in  the  matter  of  etiquette.  One  of  these  was  con- 
cerned with  the  ethics  of  the  salute.  Thus,  although 
young  Queen  Dona  Maria  of  Portugal  was  entitled  to 
her  full  number  of  guns,  her  father  could  no  longer  lay 
claim  to  any  considerable  expenditure  of  powder.  It  is 
possible  that  Pedro's  own  hand  may  be  traced  behind  the 
note  which  the  principal  lady-in-waiting  of  Dona  Maria 
had  written  on  the  morning  of  the  day  of  departure  to 
Admiral  Grivel: 

M.  Admiral, 

Her  Majesty  the  Queen  of  Portugal  desires  me  to  ask  you  to 
be  good  enough  to  abstain  from  giving  her  the  honors  due  to  her 
station  when  she  leaves  the  ship  to  embark  on  the  Seine.  Her 
Majesty  does  not  wish  to  receive  such  demonstrations  in  the  pres- 
ence of  her  father  who  can  no  longer  be  given  them,  and  she  asks 
you  to  communicate  her  feelings  on  the  subject  to  Admiral  Baker. 

I  take  this  opportunity  to  express  my  esteem.  .  .  . 

Eleonore  de  Camara. 

In  reply  to  this  the  gallant  French  admiral  expressed 
his  admiration  for  her  Majesty's  delicate  sentiments  and 
filial  piety,  and  assured  her  of  his  obedience  to  her  com- 
mands in  this  matter.  As  fate  would  have  it,  he  had  no 
option  but  to  break  his  word  within  a  very  short  time. 
When  the  moment  of  the  departure  of  the  young  Queen 
Dona  Maria  de  Gloria  arrived,  the  officers  of  the  Warspite 
seem  to  have  done  their  best  to  mark  the  occasion  with  as 
much  polite  pomp  and  ceremony  as  possible.  The  ship's 
band  played  the  special  hymn  of  Dona  Maria  de  Gloria, 
as  the  admiral  conducted  that  young  monarch  to  his 
French  comrade's  boat,  which  was  waiting  at  the  foot  of 
the  gangway.  From  the  mainmast  of  the  Warspite  flew 
the  standard  of  Portugal,  and  alas!  just  as  the  royal 
child  of  twelve  stepped  into  the  small  craft  there  thun- 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  361 

dered  out  the  first  of  the  ^ns  of  the  royal  salute.  This, 
of  course,  was  in  direct  contravention  to  the  desire  ex- 
pressed, and  the  mistake  was  put  down  to  the  absent- 
minded  enthusiasm  of  the  gunner,  although  this  latter 
swore  roundly  that  his  original  orders  had  never  been 
countermanded. 

The  most  embarrassing  feature  of  the  situation  was 
that,  while  the  Warspite  was  banging  and  blazing  away 
her  salute,  the  French  frigate  had  of  necessity  to  remain 
silent,  and  apparently  cold  and  unsnoved.  The  gallant 
French  admiral  was  flabbergasted.  Only  one  thing  re- 
mained for  him  to  do.  Instead  of  pulling  direct  for  the 
Seine  he  ordered  his  men  to  row  his  barge  to  the  frigate 
Driade.  Here  he  shouted  hurried  instructions,  and  as  a 
consequence  this  vessel,  too,  began  to  bellow  forth  her 
homage,  and  thus,  having  by  two  wrongs  righted  the  mat- 
ter, the  Admiral  continued  to  escort  the  young  Queen  to 
the  Seine. 

The  ceremonies  of  the  day  were  not  yet  over  on  board 
the  Warspite.  The  Queen  of  Portugal  having  departed, 
it  was  now  the  turn  of  Dom  Pedro  and  his  wife  to  say 
farewell.  The  entire  ship's  company  appears  to  have 
been  on  the  qui  vive  when  the  youthful  Empress  made 
her  appearance  on  deck,  and  admiration  and  homage 
glowed  in  the  eyes  of  officers  and  men. 

Indeed,  this  beautiful  great  lady  maintained  a  justly 
deserved  popularity  to  the  last.  She  apparently  had  but 
to  be  natural  in  order  to  charm.  She  advanced  to  where 
the  Admiral  stood  waiting,  shook  hands  with  him  cor- 
dially, and  gave  him  her  plain  and  sincere  thanks  for  the 
hospitality  extended  to  her  and  for  the  various  atten- 
tions she  had  received.  She  then  took  his  arm,  bowed  to 
the  Guard  of  the  Royal  Marines,  and  made  a  graceful 
courtesy  toward  the  crowd  of  officers.  She  then  drew 
out  a  white  handkerchief  and  waved  it  kindlj^  toward  the 
wildly  enthusiastic  groups  of  middies.  Thus,  ha\dng 
pleased  all  hearts,  she  passed  to  the  side  under  the  escort 


362     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

of  the  Admiral,  and  rapidly  descended  the  accommodation 
ladder. 

A  moment  or  two  later  Dom  Pedro  emerged  from  his 
cabin,  and  on  this  occasion  he  showed  himself  in  perhaps 
the  most  unfortunate  of  his  moods.  His  chief  commer- 
cial agent,  a  Polish  Jew,  had  come  on  board  some  time 
previously,  and  had  been  awaiting  his  Majesty's  ap- 
pearance with  an  eager  and  anxious  countenance.  There 
were  last  messages  to  be  given,  final  instructions  to  be 
taken,  and  doubtless  a  good  deal  to  be  managed  to  the 
profit  of  Pedro,  and  incidentally  to  his  own. 

Catching  sight  of  his  agent,  Pedro  halted  abruptly  on 
his  way  to  the  accommodation  ladder  and  soon  the  two, 
forgetful  of  all  else,  were  deep  in  matters  of  slaves, 
goods,  and  landed  property  which  Pedro  had  no  choice 
but  to  leave  behind.  That  his  agent  was  a  trusty  speci- 
men of  his  kind  was  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  he  pro- 
duced some  leather  bags  filled  with  gold  dust.  These 
Pedro  grasped  while  a  smile  broadened  on  his  counten- 
ance as  he  came  out  with  his  favorite  proverb :  '^  Amicus 
certus  in  re  incerta  cernitur."  The  two  remained  for 
over  twenty  minutes  while  the  officers  were  grouped  in 
ceremonial  attire,  the  men  were  standing  at  attention, 
and  the  Empress  was  waiting  in  the  boat  at  the  foot  of 
the  ladder! 

The  situation,  of  course,  could  not  be  allowed  to  endure 
forever.  The  Captain  of  the  Warspite,  doubtless  under 
instructions  from  the  Admiral,  approached  Dom  Pedro, 
and  reported  officially  that  the  Queen  was  in  the  boat 
waiting.  But  Pedro  did  not  mean  to  have  the  profitable 
and  interesting  interview  terminated  in  so  abrupt  a  fash- 
ion as  this.  He  seized  hold  of  the  Polish  Jew  and  walked 
off  arm  in  arm  with  him.  "Well  then,"  said  Pedro, 
"come  along  with  me  on  board  the  frigate!" 

In  order  to  give  the  full  effect  of  this  final  scene  I  must 
again  quote  the  words  of  the  invaluable  naval  chronicler 
of  the  Warspite.  , 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  363 

**The  last  words  which  that  legitimate  Champion  of 
the  Constitutional  Rights  of  Man — that  Imperial  Tom 
Paine  of  the  age — was  heard  to  utter  in  the  gangway 
with  emphasis  were,  'To  sell  my  slaves ! — so  very  cheap — 
The  paper  money  exceedingly  low ! — eleven  pence  in  cop- 
per— '  Credite  posteri!  While  the  staunch  boatswain 
was  piping  him  over  the  side,  I  turned  towards  the  numer- 
ous naval  spectators  in  order  to  observe  the  expressions 
of  their  countenances.  Most  of  them  laughed:  some 
looked  tired,  and  others  quite  disgusted.  .  .  . 

' '  The  ship 's  company  of  the  War  spite  were  rather  dis- 
appointed not  to  receive  from  Dom  Pedro  the  slightest 
remuneration  for  all  the  uncommon  heavy  boat's  duty, 
and  the  troublesome  hoisting  in  and  out  of  the  immense 
luggage.  But  our  excellent  Commander-in-Chief,  with 
his  usual  quickness  and  sound  judgment,  anticipated 
their  feelings :  he  allowed  them  some  extra  grog,  and  an 
hour's  longer  light,  fiddling  and  dancing  on  that  eventful 
evening. ' ' 

This  was  the  last  that  Rio  de  Janeiro  saw  of  its  one- 
time emperor ;  for  the  final  exit  was  achieved  in  the  early 
hours  of  the  following  morning  in  silence  and  darkness. 
Then,  towed  by  a  great  number  of  boats  supplied  by  the 
various  men-of-war,  the  Seine  and  the  Volage  crept  over 
the  still  waters  toward  the  narrow  mouth  of  the  inlet, 
passed  under  the  giant  guardian  peaks  of  the  Sugar  Loaf 
and  so  out  into  the  open  street  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean  on 
their  way  to  Europe. 

So  far  as  the  inhabitants  of  Rio  de  Janeiro  were  con- 
cerned, on  one  evening  these  two  ships  had  been ;  on  the 
next  morning  they  were  not !  A  simple  and  not  inappro- 
priate epitaph  on  the  power  and  reign  of  Pedro  himself 
in  these  flowery  regions ! 


CHAPTEE  XIX 

THE    BRITISH    IN    BRAZIL     (vi) 

Expiration  of  the  original  commercial  treaty  between  Great  Britain  and 
Brazil — Scenes  at  the  custom-house — Anglo-Brazilian  Trade — The 
slave-trade  in  Brazil — Comparative  welfare  of  the  Negroes — The  con- 
ditions of  their  existence — Slave-dealers — Revolting  circumstances  of 
their  occupation — Result  of  an  attempted  restricting  in  the  human 
commerce — Some  gipsy  specialities — A  glut  of  human  flesh — General 
Miller's  visit  to  a  slave  ship — His  indignation  aroused — His  visits 
to  the  slave-markets — Walsh's  remarks  on  the  Brazilian  slave — 
Some  astonishing  revelations — A  revolting  circumstance  at  Tijuca 
— Visit  of  two  Quakers  to  Rio — Their  interview  with  Negroes — 
Embarrassing  incident  at  the  Rio  exchange — Opinions  in  the  British 
press — The  first  railway  journey  in  Brazil — Extract  of  the  proceed- 
ings from  the  Journal  do  Commercio — Description  of  the  train  and 
of  the  trip — The  Sugarloaf  Mountain  at  Rio — Some  climbing  feats 
— British  hotels  in  the  Brazilian  capital — Boarding  houses — "Jolly 
Heath" — A  notable  character — His  retreat. 

THE  original  commercial  treaty  between  Great 
Britain  and  Brazil  expired  in  November,  1844, 
giving  way  to  a  new  condition  of  affairs,  which 
was  naturally  of  less  marked  benefit  to  Great  Britain 
than  the  old,  seeing  that  this  latter  came  into  being  sim- 
ultaneously with  the  somewhat  experimental  separate  ex- 
istence of  Brazil. 

It  was  naturally  to  the  interest  of  the  British  merchants 
to  get  their  goods  through  the  custom-house  while  the  old 
and  peculiarly  favorable  rates  of  duty  were  still  in  force, 
and  as  the  last  day  of  the  old  regime  was  more  nearly  ap- 
proached, the  more  strenuous  and  wonderful  grew  the 
feats  of  the  Eio  custom-house.  Certain  it  is  that  as  the 
hour  itself  drew  near,  the  smiles  of  the  pleasant  custom 
officials  broadened,  and  the  boxes,  bales,  and  barrels  shot 
clean  through  the  official  building  with  a  rapidity  only 

364 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  365 

equaled  by  the  body  of  a  small  boy  propelling  himself  on 
a  frozen  slide !  It  is  unnecessary,  I  suppose,  to  explain 
that  the  interests  of  the  custom  officials  had  been  made 
identical  with  those  of  the  British  merchants — a  type  of 
cosmopolitan  achievement  which  is  performed  all  over 
the  world.  But  in  this  instance  the  gigantic  scale  of  the 
procedure  was  for  years  afterwards  the  theme  of  many 
awe-inspiring  anecdotes.  The  affair  may  be  regarded 
with  calmness,  as  leaving  no  particular  slur  in  any  special 
direction.  Every-day  morality  seems  to  be  no  more  con- 
cerned with  a  custom-house  building  than  it  is  with  a 
horse-dealer's  stable! 

The  expiration  of  this  treaty,  however,  did  not  result 
in  the  diminution  of  the  Anglo-Brazilian  trade.  On  the 
contrary,  the  establishment  of  steamer  communication 
between  the  two  countries  less  than  a  decade  later  gave  a 
remarkable  impetus  to  commerce. 

In  1853  it  is  recorded  that  there  was  an  average  annual 
amount  of  £13,600,000,  of  British  capital  engaged  in  Bra- 
zil. This  was  made  up  of  credit  for  British  goods  in 
Brazil  which  just  then  averaged  £7,000,000,  for  the  twelve 
months;  a  national  debt  to  England  of  £6,000,000,  and 
bonds  amounting  to  £600,000  of  the  internal  debt  held  by 
Englishmen. 

It  was  just  about  this  period  that  the  British  began  to 
take  up  with  increasing  earnestness  the  question  of  the 
slave  trade  in  Brazil.  Far  be  it  from  the  author  to  at- 
tempt the  faintest  excuse  for  so  inhuman  a  traffic:  at  the 
same  time  it  must  be  said  in  justice  to  the  Brazilians  that 
its  conditions  here  were  milder  than  is  generally  imag- 
ined. 

British  visitors  to  Brazil,  lay  and  clerical,  civil  and 
military,  provide  a  nearly  unanimous  testimony  to  the 
comparative  welfare  of  the  Negro  slaves  in  Brazil.  Now 
and  then  we  are  shown  revolting  pictures  of  the  slave- 
markets,  and  in  the  same  way  we  occasionally  meet  with 
terrible  instances  of  individual  cruelty.    But  these  latter 


366     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AIVIERICA 

were  undoubtedly  rare,  and  those  concerned  in  such  out- 
rages were  of  the  type  that  is  given  to  ornament  the 
police-court  dock  in  countries  and  times  where  men  have 
the  right  to  protect  their  own  skins. 

Speaking  generally,  it  is  abundantly  clear  that  the 
average  African  slave  obtained  the  full  benefit  of  the 
Brazilian's  natural  benevolence.  For  it  is  a  fact  that 
though  his  friends  may  accuse  him  of  a  want  of  energy, 
not  even  his  enemies  can  charge  the  Brazilian  with  a  lack 
of  easy  kindliness.  In  Brazil,  as  in  the  Southern  States 
of  North  America,  slave-owning  was  taken  as  a  matter 
of  course.  How  could  it  have  been  otherwise  in  a  society 
which  had  never  known  what  it  was  not  to  possess  these 
human  conveniences'?  ''I  sometimes,"  says  an  English 
eye-witness  of  the  period,  "saw  groups  of  well-dressed 
females  here,  shopping  for  slaves,  exactly  as  I  have  seen 
English  ladies  amusing  themselves  at  our  bazars." 

Nevertheless,  in  Brazil  the  African  sang,  danced,  and 
his  body  swelled  in  size  and  stoutness  to  enormous  pro- 
portions such  as  could  never  have  been  attained  by  those 
oppressed  by  an  unhappy  or  brooding  mind. 

This  benevolent  attitude  applied,  of  course,  to  the  or- 
dinary slave-owning  population  of  Brazil — the  merchant, 
tradesman,  official,  and  landowner.  It  did  not  hold  good 
in  those  whose  livelihood  depended  directly  on  the  traffic 
in  the  bodies  of  the  Africans.  Here,  indeed,  was  the 
seamiest  side  of  the  slave  trade.  It  is  likely  enough  that, 
if  the  bulk  of  the  slave-owning  population  could  have  wit- 
nessed its  more  nauseating  details  slavery  would  not  have 
continued  for  so  long  as  it  did.  Certainly  those  who  per- 
sisted in  the  traffic  at  first  hand  in  the  enlightened  eight- 
eenth century  must  have  had  dispositions  of  the  kind 
such  as  the  hyena  and  the  carrion  crow  would  have  fought 
together  to  claim. 

As  frequently  happens,  some  honest  steps  taken  to  re- 
strict the  slave-trade  had  precisely  the  opposite  effect. 
Thus,  when  in  1826  a  limit  of  three  years  was  put  on  the 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  367 

permission  given  to  Brazilian  subjects  to  carry  slaves  in 
ships,  the  importation  of  Africans  increased  so  rapidly 
that  for  a  period  three  times  as  many  slaves  as  usual 
were  introduced  into  Brazil.  Walsh  has  some  interest- 
ing remarks  on  this  point : 

"When  a  cargo  of  slaves  arrives,  it  is  generally  pur- 
chased by  people  who  are  called  Ciganos,  or  gipsies,  and 
who  nearly  resemble  all  the  individuals  of  the  race  which 
I  have  seen  in  different  parts  of  the  world. ' ' 

This  is  instructive  when  one  considers  the  great  num- 
bers of  Portuguese  gipsies,  more  especially  in  the  prov- 
ince of  Alemtejo,  whose  instincts  cause  them  to  devote 
themselves  to  horse-dealing ! 

''There  is  now,  however,"  says  Walsh  again,  "such  a 
glut  of  human  flesh  in  the  markets  of  Rio,  that  it  has  be- 
come an  unprofitable  drug.  Ten  years '  credit  is  allowed 
to  the  purchaser ;  and  you  will  not  be  displeased  to  hear, 
that  many  speculators  have  been  ruined  by  their  unholy 
importations." 

General  Miller,  when  stopping  at  Rio  de  Janeiro  on  his 
way  home  to  England  from  Peru,  had  an  experience  on 
a  slave  ship  which  undoubtedly  impressed  him  for  the 
remainder  of  his  life.  He  was  breakfasting  on  board  a 
Brazilian  frigate  with  the  Commander,  a  Captain  Shep- 
pard,  when  he  observed  a  slaver,  of  320  tons,  which  had 
come  into  the  port  a  few  hours  before.  Obtaining  the 
loan  of  one  of  the  frigate's  boats,  he  boarded  the  slave 
ship,  and  the  Captain,  mistaking  him  for  a  Brazilian  offi- 
cial, received  him  courteously  enough  in  the  first  instance, 
and  showed  him  over  the  ship.  But  when  Miller,  ap- 
palled by  the  sights  he  witnessed,  and  driven  from  below 
by  the  incredibly  nauseous  odor  of  the  hold,  found  his 
breath,  he  gave  full  vent  to  his  warm  and  righteous  in- 
dignation. 

When  the  slave  captain  recovered  from  his  astonish- 
ment he,  in  turn,  abused  the  British  for  their  meddling 
habits,  upon  which  Miller,  with  unabated  warmth,  heaped 


368     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

another  volley  of  unwelcome  truths  upon  the  wretch's 
head,  and  departed  in  disgust  from  the  tainted  atmos- 
phere of  the  slaver. 

He  subsequently  visited  the  slave  markets  of  Rio, 
where  he  upheld  his  humane  views  with  the  same  deter- 
mination and  boldness.  The  slave  dealers  banded  them- 
selves together  to  yell  at  him,  but  their  resentment  did 
not  exceed  this  wordy  pitch,  and  thus  left  the  intruder 
unconcerned. 

During  his  short  stay  in  Rio  there  was  probably  no  man 
in  the  town  who  could  rival  Miller's  unpopularity  in  the 
slave  quarters — but  it  was  a  species  of  unpopularity  in 
which  that  fine  soldier  thoroughly  rejoiced. 

Some  of  Walsh's  remarks  concerning  the  Brazilian 
slaves  are  so  interesting  that  I  must  quote  them  in  full : 

' '  The  circumstance  that  particularly  struck  me  in  Bra- 
zil was  the  interminable  period  to  which  the  offspring  of 
a  slave  is  doomed  to  bondage,  from  generation  to  genera- 
tion. It  is  a  taint  in  the  blood,  which  no  length  of  time, 
no  change  of  relationship,  no  alteration  of  color,  can  ob- 
literate. Hence  it  is  that  you  see  people  of  all  hues  in  a 
state  of  bondage,  from  jet  black  to  pure  white.  On  the 
ecclesiastical  estates,  every  precaution  is  taken  to  pre- 
serve the  original  color ;  and  when,  from  an  intermixture 
of  white  blood,  the  complexion  of  the  children  is  becom- 
ing too  light,  they  endeavor  to  restore  its  darkness,  by 
obliging  the  fair  slaves  to  intermarry  with  those  who 
are  blacker  than  themselves;  the  good  fathers  being 
alarmed  at  the  prospect  of  keeping,  in  a  state  of  slavery, 
human  faces  as  fair  as  their  own. 

''I  one  day  stopped,  with  a  friend,  at  the  house  of  a 
man  on  the  road  to  Tijuca,  to  obtain  some  refreshment. 
In  the  garden,  at  the  back  of  his  venda,  we  saw  some 
young  Negroes  playing  about,  and  among  the  rest  a  very 
pretty  white  boy.  He  had  a  soft  fair  face,  light  curling 
hair,  blue  eyes,  and  a  skin  as  light  as  that  of  a  European. 
Attracted  by  the  very  engaging  little  fellow,  I  caressed 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  369 

him,  and  inquired  of  the  man  of  the  house,  if  he  was  his 
son.  He  said  not ;  but  that  he  was  the  son  of  an  English- 
man, and  his  slave,  and  he  mentioned  the  name  of  his 
father.  Shocked  and  incredulous,  I  denied  the  possibility 
of  his  father's  knowing  that  the  child  was  in  bondage; 
but  I  was  then  informed  that  the  father  not  only  knew 
it  in  this  instance,  but  that,  in  other  cases,  he  is  known  to 
sell  his  own  white  child  along  with  its  mother. ' ' 

This  inexpressibly  revolting  circumstance  of  the  trade 
does  not  seem  to  have  continued  beyond  the  first  half  of 
the  nineteenth  century.  Long  before  it  was  finally  abol- 
ished, considerable  alleviations  had  entered  into  the  con- 
ditions. 

In  1852  two  earnest  Quakers,  John  Candler  and  Will- 
iam Burgess,  traveled  to  Brazil  in  order  to  assist  in  the 
anti-slave  trade  campaign,  and,  incidentally,  to  present 
the  Emperor  with  an  address  on  this  subject.  It  appears 
that  the  costume  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  in  which  they 
invariably  appeared,  caused  a  certain  sensation  in  Rio  de 
Janeiro,  but  it  was  frequently  enough  the  turn  of  the 
worthy  Quakers  to  be  surprised. 

They  were,  for  instance,  considerably  taken  aback  when 
they  were  waited  on  by  a  deputation  of  Benin  Negroes, 
who  had  purchased  their  freedom,  and  had  already  paid 
a  considerable  sum  for  their  passage  back  to  West  Africa. 
They  had  no  favor  to  ask.  All  they  desired  was  to  put 
a  plain  business  question:  they  were  anxious  to  know  if 
the  West  African  coast  were  now  reasonably  free  from 
slave  ships.  The  amazement  of  the  Quakers  was  great 
when  they  learned  that  a  number  of  these  men's  com- 
panions had  already  proceeded  safely  back  to  their  own 
country. 

The  human  units  of  no  free  nation,  I  suppose,  can  ex- 
pect to  be  consistent  or  homogeneous  in  their  views  on 
politics  and  people.  This  was  proved  toward  the  end  of 
1853  in  a  rather  embarrassing  fashion,  on  the  occasion 
when  the  Brazilians  were  doing  honor  to  a  black  sailor 


370     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

who  had  heroically  distinguished  himself  in  saving  the 
lives  of  passengers  of  a  wrecked  vessel  of  the  Brazilian 
Steam  Packet  Company.  He  was  taken  to  the  Commer- 
cial Exchange  of  Rio  de  Janeiro,  and  there  the  proceed- 
ings were  brought  to  a  lamentable  close,  for  the  director 
for  the  month,  who  happened  to  be  an  Englishman,  re- 
sented the  entrance  of  a  black,  and  caused  him  to  be 
ejected  without  ceremony. 

This  occurrence,  at  a  time  when  Great  Britain  with 
genuine  and  disinterested  fervor  was  explaining  that  the 
black  was  really  and  truly  a  man  and  a  brother  and  that 
the  traffic  in  slaves  should  cease,  was  the  cause  of  com- 
siderable  consternation.  Several  indignant  letters  ap- 
peared on  the  subject  in  the  English  press,  containing 
such  sentiments  as  these: 

' '  This  arbitrary  proceeding  has  called  forth  articles  in 
the  public  papers,  and  it  is  provoking  that  one  of  us  who 
pretend  to  so  much  philanthropy  for  the  race  should  have 
showTi  so  much  prejudice  against  the  color.  This  heroic 
fellow,  with  whom  the  Emperor  of  the  Brazils  expressed 
himself  proud  to  shake  hands,  was  driven  from  the  ex- 
change because  he  was  an  African !  And  by  an  English- 
man ! ' ' 

Whatever  may  be  said  for  and  against  the  action  on 
moral  and  material  grounds,  it  must  be  generally  agreed 
that  it  was  completely  lacking  in  tact ! 

We  have  now  arrived  at  that  fateful  period  which  her- 
alded the  modern  industrial  era. 

The  first  official  railway  journey  accomplished  in  Bra- 
zil took  place  on  the  5th  September,  1853.  It  was  made 
on  part  of  the  line  which  was  being  built  to  connect  the 
capital  with  the  summer-residential,  mountain  city  of 
Petropolis.  Among  the  party  to  make  the  venture  w^ere 
the  British  and  Austrian  ministers,  and  Mr.  William 
Hadfield,  who  translates  as  follows  some  extracts  of  the 
proceedings  from  the  Journal  do  Commercio.    After  a 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  371 

description  of  the  passage  of  the  bay  and  of  the  landing 
on  the  opposite  shore,  the  correspondent  continues: 

* '  A  few  paces  distant  we  saw  a  single  graceful-looking 
locomotive,  with  a  certificate  of  the  year  of  its  birth,  and 
the  name  of  its  worthy  papa  engraved  on  the  central 
wheels.  The  letters,  in  yellow  metal,  were  as  follows: 
'William  Fairbairn  &  Son,  1853,  Manchester.'  The 
proper  carriage  was  not  yet  attached;  they  substituted 
for  it  a  rough  wagon,  used  for  the  conveyance  of  materi- 
als, and  without  further  delay  we  squatted  ourselves  at 
the  bottom  of  this  impromptu  vehicle.  Suddenly  a  pro- 
longed and  roaring  shriek,  a  whistle  with  the  force  of 
fifty  sopranos,  screamed  through  the  air,  deafening  the 
hearers,  and  causing  us  to  raise  our  hands  to  our  ears. 
It  was  the  signal  for  departure;  the  warning  to  those 
who  might  be  on  the  line  to  guard  against  a  mortal  blow ; 
an  announcement  made  by  a  tube  attached  to  the  locomo- 
tive itself.  Swifter  than  an  arrow,  then  the  flight  of  a 
swallow,  the  locomotive  threaded  the  rails,  swung  about, 
ran,  flew,  devoured  space,  and,  passing  through  fields, 
barren  wastes,  and  affrighted  animals,  it  stopped  at  last 
breathless,  at  the  point  where  the  road  does  not  yet  afford 
a  safe  passage.  The  space  traversed  was  a  mile  and 
three  quarters,  and  the  time  occupied  in  the  transit  four 
minutes.  It  is  just  that  we  should  here  record  the  names 
of  Messrs,  Trever  and  Bragg;  the  first,  for  having  had 
the  boldness  to  undertake  the  enterprise;  the  other,  for 
executing  with  zeal  and  skill  the  respective  works. ' ' 

Had  these  worthy  folk  been  able  to  get  a  glimpse  of  the 
cars  that  now  soar  giddily  through  the  upper  air  on  their 
steel  ropes  to  the  summit  of  the  Sugarloaf  Mountain 
above  Eio  Harbor,  their  astonishment  would  have  been 
considerably  increased ! 

This  famous  Sugarloaf  Mountain  which  pricks  upwards 
like  a  threatening  canine  tooth  to  guard  the  entrance  to 
Rio  Harbor  is  already  hung  about  with  a  certain  amount 


372     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

of  climbing  legend.  There  are  some  who  say  that  its 
steep  rock  sides  were  first  climbed  by  a  British  midship- 
man. This  bold  spirit  is  supposed  to  have  left  on  its 
summit  a  Union  Jack,  to  the  dismay  of  the  town  author- 
ities, who  could  induce  no  one  else  to  scale  the  smooth 
peak  in  order  to  remove  the  patronizing  bunting ! 

The  United  States  and  Austria,  I  believe,  each  make  a 
similar  claim  for  their  respective  midshipmen.  But  I 
feel  strongly  inclined  to  back  the  British  pretensions. 
How  could  any  one  who  makes  the  faintest  appeal  to  logic 
and  mathematics  do  otherwise?  Let  us  admit — for  the 
sake  of  this  argument  only! — that  the  British  midship- 
man is  possessed  of  only  just  the  same  amount  of  initi- 
ative as  those  of  any  other  nation!  This  concession 
would  equalize  the  chances  of  all  three  in  the  matter  of 
the  likelihood  of  the  accomplishment  of  the  feat.  But 
then,  considering  the  great  superiority  in  numbers  which 
the  British  warships  of  those  days  enjoyed  over  any  oth- 
ers visiting  Rio  Harbor,  the  weight  of  probability  in  fa- 
vor of  the  British,  immediately  becomes  overwhelming, 
and  our  case  is  won!  Can  you  conceive  a  simpler  and 
more  convincing  method  ? 

The  records  of  some  of  the  later  ascents  are  less  nebu- 
lous. It  is  certain,  for  instance,  that  on  the  fourth  of 
July,  1851,  a  very  cosmopolitan  party  made  the  perilous 
ascent.  This  consisted  of  an  American  dentist — stirred 
by  the  date,  and  also,  perhaps,  by  the  tooth-like  shape  of 
the  spur,  his  wife;  a  French  hair-dresser  and  his  wife; 
and  a  young  Scotswoman.  They  celebrated  their  advent 
on  the  summit  by  a  bonfire  and  by  a  flight  of  rockets,  con- 
siderably to  the  astonishment  of  the  people  of  Rio  far  be- 
low. The  illumination  was  justified,  for  the  peril  of  the 
climb  is  undoubted. 

By  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  British  hotels 
had  become  something  of  an  institution  in  Rio  de  Janeiro. 
Johnson's  Hotel  on  the  Caminho  Novo  is  said  to  have 
been  the  most  comfortable.     The  chief  rival  of  this  was 


THE  BRITISH  IN  BRAZIL  373 

the  Hotel  dos  Estrangeiros,  an  establishment  conducted 
on  French  lines. 

Several  English  boarding  houses  had  been  in  existence 
at  this  time  for  a  considerable  period,  and  one  of  the  most 
notable  of  these,  situated  at  Constantia,  was  kept  by  a 
Mr.  Heath,  the  son  of  a  Kentish  farmer.  Heath  himself 
was  a  sufficiently  remarkable  character,  who  spent  an 
unbroken  half  century  or  so  in  Brazil  without  apparently 
suffering  at  all  in  health.  How  little  his  natural  abun- 
dance of  spirits  were  affected  by  the  atmosphere  of  the 
sub-tropics  may  be  gathered  from  the  name  of  ''Jolly 
Heath"  by  which  he  was  known  wherever  English  was 
spoken  in  Central  and  Southern  Brazil. 

When  Jolly  Heath  gave  up  his  boarding  house  he  re- 
tired to  a  delightful  sylvan  resort  near  Theresopolis. 
There  he  grew  all  species  of  European  and  tropical  flow- 
ers; shot  jaguar,  tapir,  and  the  other  species  of  local 
game;  entertained,  doctored,  and  cared  for  British  and 
Brazilians  alike,  and  enjoyed  a  celebrity  that  was  as  well 
earned  as  it  was  wide !  Messrs.  Kidder,  Fletcher,  Hinch- 
liff,  and  other  writers  of  the  period,  all  have  a  hearty 
word  of  praise  for  Jolly  Heath. 


CHAPTER  XX 

THE    BRITISH    IN    THE    SOUTH    AMERICAN    INTERNAL    WARS 

Position  of  the  foreigner  in  South  America — Situation  of  some  who  had 
fought  in  the  War  of  Independence — The  Chilean  navy  and  the  At- 
lantic— Admiral  Brown  assists  in  the  formation  of  the  Buenos  Aires 
navy — Heterogeneous  recruits  for  the  fleet — The  period  of  Rosas — 
Reputation  of  the  Dictator — Murder  of  the  Kidd  family — Action  by 
the  British  minister — The  autocrat's  humorous  side — Circumstances 
of  the  blockade  of  Montevideo — The  Anglo-French  blockade  of  Buenos 
Aires — Curious  strategical  situation — Brown's  naval  action  with 
Garibaldi — A  theory  concerning  the  latter's  choice  of  red  uniform 
shirts — Futility  of  the  blockade  of  Buenos  Aires — The  Anglo-French 
expedition  up  the  Parana — The  engagement  at  Obligado — Objects 
achieved  by  the  venture — Engagement  at  San  Lorenzo — Strategy  of 
the  British — Some  episodes  of  the  blockade  of  Buenos  Aires — Cock- 
ney Sam  in  Montevideo — Gallantry  of  a  humble  adventurer — ]\Ieth- 
ods  by  which  he  supported  his  men — Abandonment  of  the  blockade  of 
Buenos  Aires — Rosas  proceeds  to  his  retirement  in  Southampton — A 
queer  naval  battle  between  the  fleets  of  Buenos  Aires  and  Entre  Rios 
— How  a  victory  was  arranged  beforehand — Composition  of  the  river 
fleets — British  among  the  heterogeneous  elements  of  the  crews — 
Hinchlifi'e's  unexpected  meeting  with  Urquiza's  soldiers — Formidable 
warriors — Experiences  of  the  British  in  Paraguay — Caspar  Rodriguez 
de  Franeia — Experiences  of  Messrs.  J.  P.  and  W.  P.  Robertson  under 
this  autocrat's  rule — A  passing  description  of  the  siege  of  Mon- 
tevideo by  the  British  Life  in  Paraguay — Francia's  character,  pur- 
suits, and  deeds — Robertson's  final  interview  with  Franeia — Suggested 
mission — Francisco  Solano  Lopez — Some  unfulfilled  expectations — 
Madame  Eloisa  Lynch — Lopez  plunges  his  nation  into  war — Merciless 
treatment  of  his  soldiers — Suff'erings  of  the  British — The  "Uruguay- 
ana"  torture — End  of  the  war — Situation  of  foreigners  in  South 
American  revolutions — Unexpected  question  by  a  British  minister — 
Experiences  of  an  English  clergyman  in  1868 — An  episode  in  which 
the  late  Admiral  Hart  Dyke  was  concerned — An  adventurous  boat 
expedition. 

IT  is  a  widely  understood  aifiom  in  the  Latin  con- 
tinent  that   the   foreigner  who   has   taken  up   his 
residence  in  South  America  should  refrain  from  in- 
terference with  the  politics  of  the  land  which  shelters 

374 


BRITISH  IN  SOUTH  AMERICAN  WARS        375 

him.  No  more  reasonable  precept  than  this  was  ever 
laid  down,  and  it  is  one  which  need  not  confine  itself  to 
the  affairs  of  South  America.  To  bring  the  matter  home 
to  ourselves,  we  should  surely  feel  inclined  to  regard 
with  merely  lukewarm  charity  foreigners  who,  having 
made  an  uninvited  sojourn  in  our  midst,  concerned 
themselves  in  an  endeavor  to  alter  our  laws  and  regnila- 
tions  to  a  pattern  more  nearly  approaching  that  to  which 
they  themselves  had  been  accustomed ! 

During  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  how- 
ever, this  attitude  of  aloofness  was  not  always  easy  to 
maintain  on  the  part  of  the  resident  foreigner.  This 
applies  especially,  of  course,  to  those  who,  having  taken 
service  with  the  patriot  forces  in  the  War  of  Independ- 
ence, remained  in  the  continent  after  the  battle  with  the 
Spaniard  had  given  way  to  the  period  of  internal  unrest 
which  followed.  It  is  true  that  the  number  of  these  was, 
comparatively  speaking,  not  large,  but  among  them  were 
several  sufficiently  remarkable  personalities.  The  ma- 
jority of  these  had  originally  been  concerned  with  the 
wars  on  the  Pacific  coast. 

The  naval  situation  of  Chile  after  its  fleet  had  freed 
the  Pacific  from  the  Spaniards,  was  rather  peculiar. 
For  some  time  it  seemed  to  act  as  a  reservoir  of  men 
and  ships  for  the  Atlantic  States.  The  Pacific  war  at  an 
end,  Chile  had  freed  Cochrane,  Grenfell,  and  many  others 
for  the  service  of  Brazil,  and,  at  a  later  period,  when 
Brazil  and  Buenos  Aires  were  at  loggerheads,  Chile  sold 
a  number  of  her  then  unwanted  vessels  to  the  Buenos 
Aires  Government.  In  order  to  take  charge  of  these. 
Admiral  Brown  traveled  over  the  Andes  to  the  Pacific, 
and  brought  the  vessels  back  by  way  of  Cape  Horn. 
After  this  he  set  himself  to  strengthen  the  sea  power  of 
Argentina,  or  rather  of  the  State  of  Buenos  Aires;  for 
Argentina  as  a  concrete  republic  had  not  yet  come  into 
full  being.  Before  that  desirable  condition  was  attained, 
the  young  nation  had  to  undergo  a  lengthy  and  remorse- 


376     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

less  schooling  at  the  hands  of  General  Rosas,  its  famous 
dictator. 

The  composition  of  the  personnel  of  Brown's  navy  was 
heterogeneous.  The  most  experienced  members  of  his 
crews  were,  of  course,  the  cosmopolitan  groups  of  seamen 
who,  finding  themselves  at  a  temporary  loose-end  in 
Buenos  Aires,  hastened  to  enlist  under  the  blue  and 
white  flag.  Indeed,  the  appeal  of  Admiral  Brown's  per- 
sonality and  of  the  assured  adventurous  career  went  far 
beyond  the  ranks  of  professional  sailors.  An  astonish- 
ing number  of  British  residents,  who  had  established 
themselves  as  shopkeepers,  moved  by  a  wave  of  enthusi- 
asm, made  fast  the  shutters  behind  the  iron  bars  of  their 
shops,  sallied  down  the  narrow  streets  of  Buenos  Aires, 
and  set  out  in  small  boats  on  the  yellow  waters  of  the 
river  Plate  to  join  Brown's  flotilla  at  anchor  in  the 
roads. 

Even  the  pastures  yielded  their  toll  to  the  young  Ar- 
gentine navy.  It  happened  that  just  at  that  period  a 
Mr.  Barber  Beaumont  had  caused  a  number  of  settlers 
to  be  sent  out  from  England.  On  realizing  the  situation 
in  the  Rio  de  la  Plata  a  number  of  these  dropped  the 
handle  of  the  plow  before  they  had  well  had  time  to  grasp 
it,  and  went  on  board  Brown 's  ships  to  handle  ropes  and 
cannon  instead. 

These  events  have  brought  us  down  to  the  period  of 
Rosas,  the  Argentine  dictator  already  referred  to,  whom 
Brown  served  with  a  loyalty  that  was  praiseworthy 
enough,  since,  as  a  sailor,  it  was  not  his  business  to  con- 
cern himself  with  the  rights  and  wrongs  of  politics. 

It  is  probable  enough  that  much  has  been  heaped  upon 
Rosas  for  which  he  was  not  responsible.  Considering 
the  sheer  autocracy  of  his  rule,  and  the  amount  of  crime 
which  occurred  in  it,  this  was  almost  inevitable.  The 
notorious  Mazorquero  club — an  association  which  in- 
dulged freely  in  murder — was  supposed  to  work  at  his 
instigation.     However  that  may  have  been,  British  vie- 


BRITISH  IN  SOUTH  AMERICAN  WARS        377 

tims  were  not  numerous ;  but  one  or  two  terrible  tragedies 
occurred,  nevertheless,  to  these. 

The  murder  of  every  one  of  the  nine  members  of  a 
respected  Scottish  family  of  the  name  of  Kidd,  who 
owned  an  estancia  in  the  neighborhood  of  Buenos  Aires, 
was  regarded  with  practical  certainty  as  the  work  of  the 
Mazorqueros — an  instance  of  '' f rightfulness  "  designed, 
as  it  was  alleged,  to  strike  terror  into  the  resident  for- 
eigner, and  thus  to  prevent  inconvenient  diplomatic 
claims.  However  that  may  have  been,  the  British  min- 
ister. Sir  W.  G.  Ousely,  immediately  issued  a  proclama- 
tion offering  ten  thousand  dollars  as  a  reward  for  the 
discovery  of  the  murderers.  He  then  took  this  to  Rosas, 
asking  the  Dictator  to  append  his  signature  to  it. 
Whether  Rosas  were  actually  implicated  or  not  in  this 
policy,  will,  of  course,  never  be  known,  but  in  any  case  the 
request  was  one  which  he  could  not  refuse ! 

But,  if  this  particular  official  scored  off  Rosas,  another 
British  minister — whether  Ousely 's  predecessor  or  suc- 
cessor, I  am  not  certain — was  less  fortunate.  In  the 
course  of  a  friendly  argument,  the  autocrat  turned  to  him 
with  a  laugh: 

"Senor  Ministro,"  he  exclaimed,  "within  a  day  or  two 
you  will  be  doing  menial  work  within  my  house !  Would 
you  care  to  wager  that  you  will  not  ? ' ' 

The  minister  accepted  a  bet  with  alacrity.  A  day  or 
two  later  he  entered  one  of  the  patios  of  the  Palermo 
palace,  and  found  Rosas'  charming  daughter.  Dona 
Manuelita,  hard  at  work  pounding  maize,  and  bedewing 
the  yellow  mass  with  tears  of  chagrin.  Her  father  had 
cruelly  forced  her  to  the  task,  she  explained;  would  not 
the  Senor  Ministro  assist?  The  minister,  scandalized, 
rushed  forward  to  take  the  pestle  from  her.  A  few  sec- 
onds later  he  was  pounding  vigorously,  an  apron  already 
cuimingly  hung  about  his  body.  Simultaneously  the  en- 
try of  Rosas  and  one  or  two  friends,  laughing  consum- 
edly,  explained  to  the  diplomat  that  he  had  lost  his  bet! 


378     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

This  incident  is  familiar  throughout  Argentina.  It  dem- 
onstrates a  sense  of  humor  in  Rosas  which  tempts  one  to 
give  him  the  benefit  of  the  doubt  in  many  of  the  vaguer 
charges  against  him. 

It  was  in  the  service  of  Rosas  that  Admiral  Brown  in 
1843  blockaded  the  pleasant  Uruguayan  capital,  Mon- 
tevideo. It  was  undoubtedly  only  the  arrival  of  the  in- 
tervening British  and  French  squadrons  which  saved  the 
town.  These  forced  the  Buenos  Aires  squadron  to  with- 
draw, and  Admiral  Purvis,  the  British  commander,  de- 
tained Brown  and  his  officers  for  a  time  as  prisoners  of 
war. 

The  main  objects  of  the  Anglo-French  naval  expedition 
which  blockaded  Buenos  Aires  in  1845  were  two:  the 
opening  up  of  the  river  system  which  Rosas  had  closed 
to  Paraguay  and  the  northern  province  of  Corrientes, 
and  the  relief  of  Montevideo.  This  latter  port  had  long 
been  threatened  by  Rosas,  and,  as  we  have  seen,  was  ac- 
tually being  blockaded  by  Admiral  Brown's  Buenos  Aires 
squadron,  when  the  arrival  of  the  Anglo-French  fleet 
forced  that  tough  old  sailor  to  relax  his  grip. 

In  the  meantime  a  few  companies  of  British  infantry 
had  been  landed  in  Montevideo,  but  the  absence  of  any 
important  land  forces  prevented  the  allies  from  interfer- 
ing with  Rosas'  troops  that  were  investing  the  Uruguayan 
capital  from  the  interior.  Thus  at  the  same  time  that 
the  allied  fleet  was  blockading  Buenos  Aires  by  sea,  the 
troops  of  the  latter  town  were  besieging  Montevideo  by 
land! 

A  little  later  Admiral  Brown  was  brought  face  to  face 
with  Garibaldi,  who  had  taken  service  in  the  cause  op- 
posed to  Buenos  Aires.  Garibaldi,  with  a  couple  of  im- 
promptu war  vessels,  had  succeeded  in  running  the  gaunt- 
let of  Brown's  squadron  further  up  the  river.  Then  en- 
sued a  long  stern  chase  up  the  river'Parana,  the  vessels  of 
both  sides  sailing  and  warping  vigorously  up  the  rapid 
stream.    But  Garibaldi  had  penetrated  as  high  up  the 


BRITISH  IN  SOUTH  AMERICAN  WARS        879 

yellow  flood  as  the  province  of  Corrientes,  where  the 
banks  were  already  assuming  their  subtropical  aspects, 
before  Bro^vn  came  up  with  him.  A  fight  ensued  in 
which  both  sides  might  with  some  reason  have  claimed  the 
advantage.  For  although  Brown  drove  the  hostile 
vessels  ashore  and  riddled  them  with  shot,  Garibaldi,  be- 
fore he  abandoned  them,  succeeded  in  landing  their  car- 
goes of  arms,  which  had  been  one  of  the  principal  objects 
of  his  expedition.  This,  by  the  way,  was  Brown's  last 
naval  action.  He  retired  shortly  afterwards  to  Barracas, 
a  suburb  of  Buenos  Aires,  where  he  ended  his  days  in  a 
respected  peace. 

There  is  one  rather  interesting  circumstance  concern- 
ing Garibaldi,  to  which  I  have  referred  casually  in  an- 
other book.  Being  unacquainted  with  the  minor  details 
of  his  Italian  campaign,  I  do  not  know  if  any  explanation 
is  given  of  the  origin  of  the  famous  red  shirts  worn  by  his 
volunteers.  But,  if  none  has  been  forthcoming,  it  would 
seem  probable  enough  that  Garibaldi  obtained  the  idea 
of  this  uniform  from  the  red-ponchoed  warriors  of  the 
river  Plate  with  whom  he  had  previously  been  brought 
into  contact. 

After  this  Italian  excursion  we  may  return  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Rio  de  la  Plata,  where  lay  the  British  and 
French  fleets.  After  a  time  the  allied  ministers  pleni- 
potentiary and  the  naval  commanders  began  to  be  ob- 
sessed with  a  grave  suspicion  that,  so  far  as  any  serious 
consequence  to  the  inhabitants  was  concerned,  the  block- 
ade of  Buenos  Aires  from  the  sea  resembled  the  punish- 
ment of  shutting  up  a  child  in  a  richly-stored  larder !  All 
that  it  effected  was  to  hem  in  a  land  already  possessed  of 
a  superabundance  of  all  that  it  required  for  its  existence. 

An  up-river  expedition  was  determined  on.  Her 
majesty's  ships  Gorgon,  Fulton,  and  Firebrand  set  out 
on  this  venture,  accompanied  by  a  large  number  of  mer- 
chant vessels  laden  with  goods  for  Corrientes  and  Para- 
guay.    Several  French  war  vessels  operated  in  conjunc- 


380      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

tion  with  the  British,  and  helped  to  convoy  the  important 
mercantile  fleet. 

The  first  engagement  of  importance  occurred  at  Obli- 
gado,  a  narrow  point  in  the  river  Parana  at  which  power- 
ful shore  batteries  had  been  placed,  and  where  vessels, 
fastened  together  by  a  powerful  chain,  had  been  sunk 
in  the  stream.  So  warm  was  the  engagement  here  that  a 
British  and  a  French  vessel  each  received  over  a  hundred 
shots  in  their  hulls.  But  for  the  gallantry  of  Captain 
Hope,  of  the  Firebrand,  who,  dashing  forward  with  a 
boat's  crew,  succeeded  under  a  terrific  fire  in  destroying 
the  chain  and  thus  opening  a  passage,  the  losses  to  the 
fleet  must  have  been  serious.  After  this,  however,  the 
action  was  soon  concluded,  although  the  British  casualties 
had  become  sufficiently  numerous  before  the  batteries 
were  silenced. 

After  this  the  squadron  proceeded  up  the  stream,  and 
the  merchant  vessels  disposed  of  practically  all  their 
produce  at  Corrientes,  scarcely  any  being  left  over  for 
the  Paraguayans  still  farther  up  the  river! 

Having  achieved  its  object  so  far  as  clearing  the  river 
was  concerned,  the  force  returned  downstream.  But  in 
the  meantime  Eosas  had  prepared  another  warm  corner 
for  the  expedition  at  San  Lorenzo,  where  some  batteries 
had  been  mounted  in  a  commanding  position.  Again  the 
resourcefulness  of  the  fleet,  which  was  now  accompanied 
by  H.M.S.  Alecto,  saved  the  situation.  A  rocket  brigade 
was  secretly  landed  on  an  island  opposite  the  position, 
and  just  as  the  fleet  and  convoy,  numbering  together 
over  a  hundred  vessels,  were  about  to  pass  the  spot,  the 
rockets  played  on  the  battery  in  so  startling  and  unex- 
pected fashion  that  the  vessels  were  enabled  to  run  the 
gauntlet  comparatively  unscathed. 

After  this  the  blockade  of  Buenos  Aires  continued  in  a 
somewhat  stagnant  manner.  Major  operations  of  any 
kind  were  conspicuous  by  their  absence.  Smuggling, 
however,  was  rendered  easy  by  the  great  areas  of  shallow 


BRITISH  IN  SOUTH  AMERICAN  WARS        381 

waters  over  which  small  craft,  knowing  that  the  block- 
ading vessels  could  not  follow  them,  sailed  with  im- 
punity. 

It  was  only  such  irregular  forces  as  these,  whether  by 
land  or  sea,  that  had  an  opportunity  of  showing  their  dar- 
ing. The  same  may  be  said  of  the  investment  of  Mon- 
tevideo, which  was  proceeding  simultaneously.  One  of 
the  most  notable  figures  in  this  respect  on  the  Monte- 
videan  side  was  an  Englishman  known  as  Cockney  Sam. 
How  Sam  came  to  find  himself  in  Montevideo  does  not 
seem  to  be  related.  In  London  he  had  been  a  coal  heaver, 
an  occupation  which  in  itself  would  scarcely  seem  to 
possess  any  particular  driving  power  toward  the  warmer 
shores  of  the  Rio  de  la  Plata.  However,  there  he  was  at 
the  time  when  the  Allied  fleets  were  lying  in  the  river, 
established  as  a  lighterman  and  as  a  dealer  in  bones. 

In  his  own  humble  fashion  Cockney  Sam,  who  was  a 
well-spoken  and  civil-mannered  fellow,  appears  to  have 
been  a  very  popular  character  in  Montevideo.  So  that, 
when  the  martial  spirit  of  the  period  spurred  him  away 
from  his  mercantile  bones  in  quest  of  wilder  and  less 
dry  adventures,  he  had  no  difficulty  in  obtaining  a  follow- 
ing. 

Then  in  a  wild  daylight  charge  or  a  stealthy  night  at- 
tack he  would  sally  out  to  where  Rosas'  troops  kept 
watch  about  the  outskirts  of  Montevideo.  There  were 
times  when  very  few  of  Cockney  Sam's  devoted  band 
would  return  alive  from  one  of  these  charges  of  theirs. 
Then  Cockney  Sam  would  busy  himself  about  the  streets 
of  Montevideo,  recruiting  men  and  money  for  his  next 
expedition,  with  a  ridiculously  mild  and  ingratiating 
smile.  In  fact,  it  is  said  that  he  was  as  punctiliously 
grateful  for  any  subscription  toward  his  fighting  force, 
as  he  had  been  in  his  commercial  days  for  an  order  for 
bones!  Considering  the  utterly  reckless  daring  with 
which  he  led  his  band,  it  is  not  a  little  remarkable  that 
Cockney  Sam  should  have  survived  the  war,  as  he  did. 


382     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

All  this  time  it  was  becoming  increasingly  evident  to 
the  blockading  forces  that  the  amount  of  inconvenience 
which  Rosas  was  suffering  from  the  blockade  was  imper- 
ceptible. A  renewed  attempt  to  make  terms  with  the 
Dictator  met  with  failure — as,  indeed,  it  could  scarcely 
fail  to  do  when  the  only  weapon  the  allies  could  employ 
was  a  threat  to  continue  this  very  blockade !  This  threat 
having  been  treated  with  a  not  unnatural  scorn,  the  allies 
took  the  only  step  which  was  left  to  them.  They  raised 
the  blockade !  The  fleets  sailed  away,  and  the  river  Plate 
was  once  again  left  to  its  own  devices. 

Some  five  years  later,  however,  it  was  the  lot  of  H.M.S. 
Locust  to  shelter  Rosas — then  fleeing  from  the  victorious 
armies  of  a  country  which  his  iron  rule  could  no  longer 
keep  in  chains — and  eventually  to  bear  him  to  Southamp- 
ton, in  the  neighborhood  of  which,  much  respected — re- 
tired despots  seem  to  differ  curiously  little  from  any 
other  folk! — he  passed  the  remainder  of  his  days.  So 
curious  a  working  of  fate  could  have  been  foreseen  by 
none  when  the  blockading  British  fleet  lay  off  Buenos 
Aires ! 

Even  after  the  fall  of  Rosas,  however,  differences  be- 
tween the  river  Plate  provinces  led  to  further  naval  ac- 
tions in  the  great  river.  It  was  now  the  turn  of  Urquiza, 
the  rival  of  the  fallen  Rosas,  to  blockade  Buenos  Aires 
with  the  forces  of  Entre  Rios.  In  the  course  of  this  a 
naval  engagement  was  fought  which  was  principally  re- 
markable on  account  of  its  humorous  side. 

Some  vessels  of  Urquiza 's  fleet,  commanded  by  an 
Admiral  Coe,  when  off  the  low  island  of  Martin  Garcia, 
fell  in  with  a  Buenos  Aires  squadron,  the  most  important 
vessel  of  which  was  an  eighteen-gun  brig  commanded  by 
an  Englishman  of  the  name  of  Turner.  The  action  that 
followed  had  something  in  common  with  the  less  reputa- 
ble race-meetings:  its  result  had  been  arranged  before- 
hand. 

Coe  blazed  away  some  round  shot  at  Turner's  brig,  con- 


BRITISH  IN  SOUTH  AMERICAN  WARS        383 

cerning  whicli  Turner  did  not  experience  sufficient  curi- 
osity even  to  go  up  on  deck.  It  was  now  the  brig's  turn 
to  fire.  Simultaneously  with  the  first  hangings  of  the 
shots  the  guns  reared  up  and  turned  turtle!  The  rope 
lashings  had  been  saturated  with  sulphuric  acid !  After 
this — since  it  was  clearly  impossible  to  defend  a  brig 
whose  guns  littered  the  deck  like  autumn  leaves — the 
battle  was  over. 

The  brig,  together  with  a  three-masted  schooner  and 
a  steamer,  hastened  to  strike  the  colors  that  had  been 
sold,  while  three  small  schooners  which  had  remained 
loyal,  made  off  in  dismay  toward  Buenos  Aires. 

At  this  period  the  river  fleets  of  neither  Buenos  Aires 
nor  Montevideo  presented  an  imposing  spectacle.  The 
most  important  vessels  of  which  they  were  composed 
were  merely  small  passenger  steamers  fitted  with  such 
gTins  as  were  available.  Urquiza  's  ships,  moreover,  were 
manned  principally  by  his  scarlet  ponchoed  soldiers,  fa- 
mous as  cavalrymen,  but  totally  out  of  their  element  on 
the  deck  of  a  steamer !  Probably  the  only  really  appro- 
priate asset  of  this  fleet  of  Urquiza 's  was  the  chief  engi- 
neer, who  even  here  did  not  fail  to  be  a  Scotsman ! 

The  Buenos  Aires  squadron,  on  the  other  hand,  con- 
tained a  number  of  British.  Mr.  T.  W.  Hinchliff,  who, 
when  descending  the  Parana  in  H.M.S.  Ardent,  had  an 
opportunity  of  inspecting  the  two  squadrons  as  they  lay 
at  a  more  or  less  permanent  anchorage  within  a  league 
of  each  other,  remarked  this  on  the  visit  of  a  boat  from 
the  Buenos  Aires  flagship.  *'We  were  rather  struck," 
he  says,  ''with  the  smart  appearance  of  two  or  three  of 
the  crew,  who  looked  very  like  Englishmen,  and  the  sus- 
picion was  soon  confirmed.  The  officer  gave  them  the 
word  in  Spanish,  and  one  of  them  at  once  remarked  to 
the  man  next  to  him,  'Shove  off,  Bill.  All  right!'  No 
doubt  they  had  been  victims  to  some  of  the  Buenos  Aires 
crimps,  who  liked  nothing  better  than  inducing  English 
and  American  seamen  to  run  from  their  ships." 


384     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

Having  gone  so  far  with  Hinchliff  we  may  accompany 
him  a  little  farther,  to  a  spot  near  Santa  Fe,  in  fact,  by 
an  old  ruined  fort,  where  he  unexpectedly  fell  in  with 
some  of  Urquiza's  soldiers.  It  must  be  explained  that  a 
surprise  attack  to  which  many  of  their  number  had  fallen 
victims  on  the  previous  night  was  chiefly  responsible  for 
their  demeanor.     Says  Hinchliff : 

"We  had  hoped  to  explore  this  curious  old  edifice,  but 
on  coming  up  to  it  we  were  surprised  to  find  a  consider- 
able number  of  soldiers  hanging  about  in  the  much- 
dreaded  red  ponchos  of  Urquiza.  Some  of  them  were 
lying  at  full  length  on  the  ground,  some  were  smoking 
paper  cigars  under  a  species  of  veranda,  and  others  were 
lounging  sulkily  with  their  backs  against  the  wall,  star- 
ing at  us  silently.  The  Santafecinos  are  considered  the 
finest  of  the  natives,  and  certainly  these  were  the  most 
formidable-looking  men  I  have  ever  seen,  with  the  excep- 
tion, perhaps,  of  the  Life  Guards.  Many  of  them  must 
have  been  several  inches  over  six  feet,  and  there  was  an 
appearance  of  dangerous  ferocity  about  them  which  was 
anything  but  pleasant.  I  saw  that  our  Italian  friend, 
who  knew  the  country  well,  was  not  only  surprised  but 
greatly  alarmed  at  finding  himself  in  such  company  about 
a  mile  from  the  town:  he  whispered  hurriedly  that  we 
must  pass  without  taking  notice  of  them,  and  turn  as 
soon  as  we  could.  We  passed  many  fierce  faces,  but  no 
one  said  a  word  to  us.  .  .  ." 

It  was  in  the  hermit-kingdom  of  Paraguay  that  many 
sufficiently  terrible  experiences  were  undergone  by  the 
British  who,  having  once  penetrated  into  the  inland  re- 
public, found  themselves  entirely  deprived  of  the  op- 
portunity of  receiving  assistance  from  the  outside  world. 

This  condition  of  affairs  was  introduced  in  1816  by 
Paraguay's  first  autocrat,  Gaspar  Rodriguez  de  Francia. 
To  live  in  Paraguay  under  the  rule  of  Francia  was  to 
know  all  the  sensations  of  an  unbroken  sojourn  above  a 
powder  mine!     The  terrible  uncertainty  in  which  even 


BRITISH  IN  SOUTH  AMERICAN  WARS        385 

foreigners  were  kept  is  testified  to  by  Messrs.  J.  P.  and 
W.  P.  Roberston,  as  well  as  by  others. 

Mr.  J.  P.  Robertson  was  one  of  those  who  in  1806 
followed  in  the  wake  of  the  first  British  expedition  to  the 
river  Plate.  On  the  arrival  of  his  vessel  at  the  mouth 
of  the  river  the  voyagers  were  met  by  the  somber  tid- 
ings of  the  capitulation  of  the  British  garrison  of  Buenos 
Aires.  They  were,  however,  enabled  to  watch  the  siege 
of  Montevideo,  the  scene  of  which  he  thus  describes : 

"Brigs  of  war  were  running  close  under  the  walls,  and 
bombarding  the  citadel  from  the  sea;  the  guns  were 
leveled  with  deadly  aim  at  the  part  of  the  fortification 
selected  for  the  breach ;  and  the  mortar  was  discharging, 
in  fatal  curve,  the  destructive  bomb.  Thousands  of  spec- 
tators from  the  ships  were  tracing,  in  breathless  anxiety, 
the  impression  made  by  every  shell  upon  the  town,  and 
every  ball  upon  the  breach.  The  frequent  sorties  made 
by  the  Spanish  troops,  and  repulses  invariably  sustained 
by  them,  gave  an  animating,  but  nervous  interest  to  the 
scene. ' ' 

Roberston  witnessed  the  capture  of  Montevideo,  and 
remained  in  South  America,  until  the  final  fiasco  of  the 
expedition  forced  him  to  depart  with  the  rest.  After  a 
few  months  spent  at  home  the  desire  to  see  more  of  South 
America  overcame  him,  and,  setting  sail  again  for  the 
Rio  de  la  Plata,  he  managed  to  make  his  way  into  Para- 
guay just  as  Francia  was  preparing  to  take  upon  him- 
self autocratic  power. 

Thus  Robertson,  who  was  shortly  afterwards  joined 
by  his  brother,  witnessed  the  first  founding  of  the  despotic 
rule  in  Paraguay,  the  frontiers  of  which  it  soon  became 
impossible  to  cross  without  a  license  from  the  Supremo, 
by  which  title  Francia  became  known.  No  Paraguayan 
ever  wittingly  crossed  Francia 's  will:  merely  to  dis- 
please him  in  all  unconsciousness  meant  imprisonment 
or  banishment  into  the  distant  forests  at  the  best,  torture 
and  death  at  the  worst. 


386     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

Two  or  three  deeds  and  characteristics  of  Francia  will 
show  the  medley  of  traits  of  which  this  extraordinary 
man's  character  was  made  up.  He  kidnapped  the  French 
naturalist  Bonpland  from  across  the  border  in  Argentina 
with  no  more  compunction  than  he  would  have  plucked 
a  stray  plant  out  of  his  own  garden;  he  decreed  that 
every  one  of  his  subjects,  however  poor,  should  wear  a 
hat — even  if  it  were  only  a  brim — in  order  that  he  should 
be  able  to  salute  his  ruler  with  proper  reverence ;  he  was 
ascetic  to  the  point  of  austerity  in  his  tastes;  and  he 
was  much  addicted  to  the  study  of  astronomy,  algebra, 
and  natural  science !  When  engrossed  in  these  pursuits 
and  in  that  of  literature,  he  at  one  period  gave  orders 
that  any  one  who  approached  inconveniently  near  to  his 
window  should  be  shot. 

It  was  not  astonishing  that  a  certain  ingenuousness 
should  have  characterized  Francia.  Almost  the  whole  of 
the  despot's  life  was  spent  in  a  remote  country  that  his 
own  laws  ended  by  rendering  completely  secluded. 

Thus  when  Robertson,  who  had  the  autocrat's  permis- 
sion to  that  end,  was  about  to  depart  for  England,  he 
was  summoned  to  Francia 's  presence.  Behind  the  dic- 
tator were  stationed  four  grenadiers  laden  with  samples 
of  tobacco,  cigars,  spirits,  sugar,  and  other  Paraguayan 
produce.  These,  explained  Francia,  Robertson  was  to 
bear  to  the  British  House  of  Commons,  and,  having  ex- 
hibited them,  he  was  to  announce  that  Francia  was  ready 
to  enter  into  a  commercial  alliance  with  England.  The 
mission  itself  was  essentially  practical;  but  the  method 
suggested  for  its  completion  was  not  without  its  uncon- 
scious humor! 

But  the  arch-tyranny  of  Paraguay  did  not  attain  to 
its  zenith  until,  Francia  and  his  immediate  successor 
Carlos  Antonio  Lopez  having  died,  Francisco  Solano 
Lopez  came  to  what  was  virtually  the  throne  of  Para- 
guay. The  sheer  despotism  which  was  latent  in  Fran- 
cisco Solano  Lopez  did  not  make  itself  apparent  until 


BRITISH  IN  SOUTH  AMERICAN  WARS        387 

after  he  had  attained  to  the  dictatorship  of  the  inland 
state. 

In  1861  Hinchliff,  referring  to  the  death  of  Carlos  An- 
tonio Lopez,  wrote:  ''His  son  General  Lopez  began  to 
reign  in  his  stead;  and  it  is  supposed  that  the  interests 
of  Englishmen  will  be  favored  by  the  circumstance  that 
the  honors  of  the  presidential  throne  are  shared  by  an 
amicably  disposed  English  woman. ' ' 

Lopez  had  spent  some  time  in  England,  where  he  had 
made  a  favorable  impression,  and  the  hopes  expressed  by 
Hinchliff  were  very  generally  shared.  But  they  were 
realized  neither  in  himself  nor  in  Madame  Eloisa  Lynch, 
the  handsome  Parisian-Irishwoman  who  shared  his  throne 
in  a  somewhat  irregular  fashion. 

The  latter,  it  is  true,  appears  to  have  been  directly  re- 
sponsible for  none  of  the  atrocities  committed  by  Lopez ; 
but  she  does  not  seem  to  have  moved  a  finger  to  prevent 
one  of  these  outrages.  It  is  true  that  Lopez,  when  thwart- 
ed, revealed  the  instincts  of  a  beast  of  prey ;  nevertheless, 
adventuress  though  she  was,  Madame  Lynch  retained  her 
influence  over  the  tyrant  to  the  end,  and  there  is  no  doubt 
that  she  might  frequently  have  interposed  her  merciful 
offices  without  the  faintest  danger  to  her  own  interests, 
such  as  they  were. 

When  Lopez  flung  his  brave  and  devoted  army  against 
the  combined  forces  of  Argentina,  Brazil,  and  Uruguay, 
he  had  embarked  both  himself  and  the  nation  in  a  suicidal 
plunge.  As  one  of  the  results  of  this,  the  standard  he 
set  for  his  men  was  above  the  limits  of  human  possibility. 
Officers  who  had  given  way  when  only  a  tenth  of  their 
men  remained  in  action  were  executed,  and  their  wives 
were  tortured  to  death.  Men  who  were  overheard  to 
cast  a  single  doubt  upon  a  complete  victory  all  along 
the  line  were  shot  out  of  hand  as  for  a  heinous  crime. 
There  were  Paraguayans  captured  by  the  Brazilians,  who 
might  well  enough  have  accepted  the  excuse  of  having 
done  with  the  inhuman  hardships  of  the  war.    Instead  of 


388     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

this  they  made  their  escape,  and  with  the  warmest  loy- 
alty rejoined  their  ragged  and  worn  comrades.  As  sole 
reward  they  were  led  out  before  a  firing  party,  and  fell 
as  an  example  to  the  rest !  Lopez  did  not  approve  of  his 
men  being  taken  prisoners. 

Unfortunately  for  themselves,  there  were  a  certain 
number  of  British  in  Paraguay  when  the  war  broke  out. 
The  majority  of  these  were  mechanics  and  engineers,  and 
the  experiences  of  nearly  all  of  them  were  of  the  most 
terrible  description.  Confined  in  noisome  dungeons 
haunted  by  reptiles  and  rats,  driven  from  time  to  time 
in  a  starving  condition  from  one  place  to  another — this 
constituted  only  a  part  of  what  they  were  obliged  to  suf- 
fer. A  special  torture,  known  as  the  "Uruguayana"  had 
been  invented  by  one  of  Lopez's  most  favored  creatures, 
and  more  than  one  of  the  British  captives  has  related  his 
experiences  when  sutfering  under  this.  The  victim's 
limbs  were  firmly  lashed  together  with  hide ;  he  was  then 
placed  in  a  sitting  position,  and  a  number  of  muskets 
at  the  back  of  his  neck  were  made  fast  with  thongs,  the 
effect  of  this  being  to  bend  the  sufferer's  body  into  an  un- 
natural and  agonizing  curve. 

In  the  end  when,  the  Paraguayan  army  having  been  re- 
duced to  little  more  than  a  half-naked  collection  of  old 
men  and  boys,  the  war  came  to  an  end.  Such  Englishmen 
as  survived  owed  their  escape  rather  to  Lopez's  death 
than  to  any  care  that  he  had  taken  for  their  preservation. 
Indeed,  to  serve  Lopez  was  as  fatal  as  the  traditional  din- 
ner with  Borgia !  His  short,  but  very  red,  rule  provides 
one  of  the  grimmest  chapters  in  South  American  history. 

Fortunately  for  foreigners  these  dark  days  in  Para- 
guay are  not  typical  of  the  history  of  the  southern  con- 
tinent in  general.  The  policy  of  the  South  Americans 
in  almost  all  the  numerous  revolutions  which  have  oc- 
curred from  time  to  time  in  the  past  has  been  to  refrain 
from  molesting  the  persons  of  resident  foreigners.  In 
the  instances  where  one  of  these  has  suffered  it  will  al- 


BRITISH  IN  SOUTH  AMERICAN  WARS        389 

most  certainly  be  found  that  the  foreigner  has  interested 
himself  in  the  affairs  of  one  or  the  other  of  the  belligerent 
parties. 

But  this  applies  only  to  life  and  limb.  The  circum- 
stances affecting  property  have  by  no  means  been  the 
same,  least  of  all  in  stock-raising  countries  when  armies 
of  men,  short  of  horses  and  hungry  for  beef,  have  been 
on  the  march.  On  such  occasions  the  amount  of  live- 
stock commandeered  would  depend  largely  on  the  tact 
and  popularity  of  the  breeder. 

These  proceedings,  although  annoying  enough,  were 
seldom  of  serious  consequence,  and  were  generally  taken 
in  fairly  good  part.  Indeed,  in  an  era  of  political  storm 
the  estanciero  was  inclined  to  lump  this  risk  in  with  that 
of  locusts,  drought,  flood,  and  other  visitations  of  the 
kind  which  it  is  necessary  to  endure  with  philosophy.  So 
the  shrewd  ones  made  so  signal  a  virtue  of  necessity  that 
on  more  than  one  occasion  their  livestock  was  returned 
to  them  a  hundredfold — in  the  shape  of  a  concession  or 
some  similar  privilege ! 

Diplomatic  representations  were  seldom  of  much  avail, 
and  appeals  to  this  effect  were  frequently  resented  by  the 
ministers,  resident  or  plenipotentiary,  of  the  aggrieved 
persons'  country — diplomats  who  complained  that  it  was 
beneath  their  dignity  to  assist  in  the  chase  after  lost  cat- 
tle! Perhaps  this  explains  the  answer  which  a  British 
estanciero  in  Uruguay  received  from  his  minister  in  the 
early  1860 's,  on  his  explaining  the  fact  that  he  had  just 
suffered  the  loss  of  sixteen  commandeered  carriage 
horses,  the  claim  for  which  he  desired  should  be  placed 
officially  before  the  Uruguayan  Government.  The  elderly 
representative  of  Great  Britain  eyed  the  estanciero  for  a 
time  in  surprise,  whether  real  or  feigned. 

"Why,  Mr. ,"  he  asked  at  length,  "what  on  earth 

can  you  require  sixteen  carriage  horses  for ! ' ' 

And  there  the  matter  remained. 

An  English  clergyman  who  landed  in  Montevideo  in 


390     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

1868  certainly  obtained  a  glimpse  of  the  traditional  spe- 
cies of  South  American  revolution.  Here  is  his  expe- 
rience as  related  by  himself : 

''Noticing  from  the  house  where  I  lived,  several  per- 
sons peeping  round  the  corner  of  the  street,  I  went  out 
to  see  what  was  the  matter.  The  balls  were  coming  up 
this  street  from  the  soldiers  who  were  advancing;  and 
just  then  a  gentleman  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  street, 
was  shot  through  the  thigh,  and  taken  into  a  house.  A 
peon  crossing  the  street  at  this  spot  was  shot  dead,  picked 
up,  placed  on  a  shutter,  and  carried  away.  On  this  I 
thought  it  prudent  to  retire  into  the  house." 

And  at  this  period,  to  add  to  the  political  tragedy,  a 
terrible  epidemic  of  cholera  was  sweeping  away  the  in- 
habitants of  Montevideo  by  the  thousand! 

It  is  this  sort  of  incident  that  many  people  in  Europe 
have  accepted  as  being  all  in  the  normal  South  American 
day's  work! 

This  chapter  may  be  concluded  by  an  episode  which, 
having  received  it  from  the  late  Admiral  Hart-Dyke's 
own  lips,  I  have  already  narrated  in  "The  Eomance  of 
the  Eiver  Plate."  Nevertheless,  the  incident  falls  so 
completely  within  the  scope  of  this  book  that  it  cannot 
well  remain  absent  from  these  pages. 

The  admiral — then  a  junior  officer — was  stationed  in 
a  British  warship  off  Buenos  Aires  during  one  of  the 
revolutionary  outbursts  at  a  period  long  before  the  pres- 
ent era  of  prosperity  and  peace.  The  Argentine  fleet  was 
likewise  at  anchor  off  the  capital.  As  it  happened,  the 
naval  force  of  the  republic  was  opposed  to  the  land  pow- 
ers which  were  in  possession  of  Buenos  Aires.  Owing  to 
this,  the  Argentine  admiral  suffered  no  little  anxiety  on 
account  of  his  wife  and  two  daughters,  who  were  cut  off 
from  him  in  the  city.  This  he  confided  to  the  officers  of 
the  British  warship,  with  whom  he  appears  to  have  been 
on  friendly  terms.  Hart-Dyke  volunteered  to  bring  the 
ladies  off  from  the  shore,  and  set  himself  to  prepare  a 


BRITISH  IN  SOUTH  AMERICAN  WARS        391 

somewhat  daring  plan.  In  fact  the  episode,  modestly 
and  simply  as  it  was  told,  savors  strongly  of  the  genuine 
romance  of  the  British  sailor,  and  suggests  Henty  at  his 
best. 

Behold,  just  before  the  fall  of  night,  Hart-Dyke  setting 
out  for  the  shore  in  command  of  his  boat 's  crew,  two  mid- 
shipmen's  uniforms  tucked  comfortably  away  in  the 
stem !  On  this  point  my  memory  does  not  serve  me  well ; 
but  it  appears  that  the  Argentine  admiral  was  less  anx- 
ious concerning  his  wife  than  his  daughters.  It  is  likely 
enough  that  the  elder  lady  was  very  well  able  to  look 
after  herself.  In  any  case  she  would  have  found  it  diffi- 
cult to  disguise  herself  as  a  midshipman.  Hence  the 
provision  of  two  uniforms  only. 

The  boat  reached  the  mole  in  the  ordinary  course  of 
events,  and  a  short  time  afterwards  the  young  naval  offi- 
cer found  himself  at  the  Argentine  admiral's  house.  His 
advent  caused  no  little  flutter,  as  may  be  imagined;  but 
the  admiral's  wife  appears  to  have  been  a  lady  of  re- 
source, who  lent  herself  readily  to  the  plot.  So,  after  an 
interval,  we  see  Hart-Dyke  sailing  along  the  street,  ac- 
companied by  two  very  smooth-cheeked  midshipmen. 

It  was  dark  now,  and  the  illumination  in  the  thorough- 
fares sufficiently  scanty.  All  went  well  for  a  while,  and 
the  trio,  without  exciting  suspicion,  passed  by  the  side 
of  the  low  square  houses  with  the  lamps  shining  from  their 
patios  on  their  way  to  the  mole.  At  the  foot  of  the  steps 
waited  the  boat  with  its  British  crew ;  it  was  merely  neces- 
sary to  descend  and  to  enter  it.  But  there's  many  a  slip 
— and  in  this  case  the  slip  was  no  metaphorical  one.  As 
ill  fortune  would  have  it,  the  steps  were  greasy.  One  of 
the  admiral's  daughters  lost  her  foothold,  and  bumped 
down  on  the  unsympathetic  stone.  She  did  what  nine 
women  out  of  ten  would  have  done  under  the  circum- 
stances :  she  emitted  a  treble  scream. 

The  sound  electrified  the  officials  and  the  loafers  on  the 
pier.    Amid  the  hubbub  arose  urgent  commands  to  halt. 


392     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

This  was  the  very  last  thing  that  the  trio  desired.  The 
genuine  officer  bundled  his  two  spurious  juniors  into  the 
boat ;  the  sailors  bent  lustily  to  their  oars,  and  the  small 
craft  shot  out  into  the  night  amid  a  wild  fusillade  from 
the  mole.  Fortunately  no  one  was  hit,  although  the  boat 
itself  was  struck,  and  an  oar  or  two  splintered. 

But  the  adventures  of  the  night  were  not  yet  at  an  end. 
In  order  to  distinguish  friends  from  foes  it  had  been  ar- 
ranged that,  as  the  party  neared  the  Argentine  admiral 's 
ship,  a  flare  should  be  burned  in  the  boat.  In  the  cir- 
cumstances which  had  intervened,  such  a  proceeding 
would  have  revealed  the  fugitives'  whereabouts  to  those 
on  shore  who  were  still  blazing  away  into  the  darkness. 
So  the  boat  approached  the  Argentine  vessel  unan- 
nounced by  its  flare.  The  sentries  were  on  the  alert,  and 
welcomed  the  suspicious  craft  with  a  volley  almost  as  fu- 
rious as  had  been  those  from  the  shore.  But  the  shouted 
warning  proved  effective,  and  in  the  end  the  party  stood 
in  safety  on  the  deck  of  the  Argentine  warship.  Here 
they  were  received  with  profound  thankfulness  by  the 
admiral,  whose  feelings  may  be  imagined  when  he  discov- 
ered that  it  was  upon  his  own  daughters  that  his  men 
had  fired! 


PAET  IV 
SCIENTIFIC  AND  LITERARY  OBSERVERS 


CHAPTER  XXI 

SOME    BRITISH    NATURALISTS    IN    SOUTH    AMERICA 

Tropical  forests — Life  and  torments  in  the  South  American  jungle — Two 
sides  of  the  picture — Qualities  essential  to  the  naturalist — Charles 
Waterton — Some  salient  characteristics — VVaterton's  home  life — His 
eccentricities  and  pursuits  on  his  own  estate — Waterton  in  the 
Guiana  forest — Raleigh's  description  of  that  country — Stoicism  ex- 
hibited by  Waterton — Unenterprising  vampire  bats — Some  instances 
of  the  naturalist's  enthusiasm — Adventures  with  giant  snakes — How 
he  rode  an  alligator — His  own  account  of  the  encounter — Methods  by 
which  he  fought  fever — Waterton's  death — ^Charles  Darwin — The  voy- 
age of  the  Beagle — Scope  of  Darwin's  travels  in  South  America — His 
experiences  in  the  south  of  the  continent — Some  notable  fossil  dis- 
coveries— Intercourse  with  the  Fuegians — Narrow  escape  of  a  mis- 
sionary— Darwin  on  the  Pacific  coast — The  country  dealt  with  by 
Bates  and  Wallace — Mystery  of  the  Amazon  Valley — Henry  Bates  as 
a  naturalist — His  work  and  enthusiasm — Tale  of  a  gigantic  spider — 
Imaginary  perils  and  real  dangers — The  noises  of  a  tropical  forest — 
The  menace  of  nature  and  its  creatures — Various  diseases,  including 
yellow  fever,  undermine  Bates's  health — His  departure  from  South 
America — Regrets  on  sailing — Expression  of  his  subsequent  views — 
A.  R.  Wallace — His  experiences  on  the  Amazon — Incidents  during  the 
canoe  voyages — Perils  of  the  streams — Difficulties  with  Indian 
crews — Insect  plagues — Encounter  with  a  jaguar — Ultimate  triumph 
of  the  climate — Wallace's  homeward  voyage — Loss  of  the  vessel  by 
fire — Destruction  of  the  naturalist's  collections — Richard  Spruce — 
Adventures  of  a  keen  botanist — His  early  career — An  adventure  at 
Pard — His  experiences  during  an  attack  of  fever — Murderous  Indians 
— An  uncomfortable  British  assistant — Encounter  with  a  condor — 
Botanical  excursions  in  Venezuela,  the  Orinoco  basin,  and  the  Ecua- 
dorean  Andes — Long-lived  Englishmen — Other  naturalists. 

THERE  is  something  unusually  seductive  in  the 
mental  picturings  of  a  tropical  forest.  That 
these  tremendous  hotbeds  of  vegetation  possess 
an  extraordinary  charm  of  their  own  is  undeniable.  Nev- 
ertheless their  greatest  glamour  probably  haunts  those 
who  have  never  trodden  them. 

395 


396     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

No  doubt  there  are  many  who  picture  the  tropical  for- 
ests much  as  the  hothouses  at  Kew  Gardens,  with  the 
glass  walls  abolished  and  the  interior  continued  indefi- 
nitely !  In  some  respects  they  might  not  be  far  wrong — 
provided  that  in  their  mind  they  raised  the  roof  indefi- 
nitely, increased  the  size  of  most  of  the  growths  a  dozen 
fold,  and  flung  one  and  all  close  into  each  other's  leafy 
arms,  thus  making  a  most  gigantic  tangle,  the  lianas 
winding  themselves  everywhere  in  clinging  confusion. 

But  there  are  many  objects  which  the  stay-at-home 
dreamer — probably  lounging  in  placid  and  secure  ease 
on  a  wholesome  and  shaven  lawn — would  have  to  add  to 
this.  There  are  the  hidden  pitfalls  of  the  ground ;  there 
are  the  leaf-concealed  stumps  and  branches  which  wound 
and  bruise  the  shins  and  ankles,  and  there  are  the  great 
thorns  which  lie  in  wait  to  tear  the  flesh  remorselessly. 

This  is  not  all.  By  no  means !  There  are  many  worse 
things.  There  is  the  poisonous  snake  which  lurks  in  the 
undergrowth;  there  are  the  great  and  little  ants  on  the 
boughs  which  resent  the  approach  of  an  unconscious  hu- 
man hand  by  a  bite  as  painful  as  living  fire;  there  are 
innumerable  flies  whose  vicious  little  fangs  draw  blood. 

After  all  this  it  may  seem  an  unnecessary  piling  up  of 
horrors  to  add  to  the  list  the  droning  song  of  the  intol- 
erably active  swarms  of  mosquitos,  the  burrowing  atten- 
tions of  the  unpleasant  '* jigger,"  which  loves  to  lay  its 
eggs  in  the  flesh  under  the  human  toe-nail,  and — the  most 
fateful  curse  of  all — the  malaria;  the  beri-beri,  black- 
water,  and  yellow  fevers,  whose  dreadful  shadows  sit 
brooding  all  the  time  over  the  jungle. 

But  it  is  impossible  to  pass  any  of  these  by.  For  they 
— all  the  foregoing,  and  many  more — are  there,  as  large 
as  life  and  as  grim  as  death,  in  the  tropical  forests  of 
South  America.  They  constitute  the  netherworld  of  the 
jungle;  they  show  the  reverse  of  that  picture  which  is 
made  up  of  quaint  monkeys,  brilliant  birds,  wonderfully 
gorgeous  butterflies,  luminous  insects  that  glow  at  night 


SOME  BRITISH  NATURALISTS  397 

like  lighthouses  at  sea,  and  blossoms  of  a  size  and  shape 
that  have  to  be  seen  to  be  believed  in  by  the  average  per- 
son brought  up  in  northern  Europe. 

It  is  only  the  possessor  of  rather  a  special  tempera- 
ment who  can  take  up  with  success  the  calling  of  a  natur- 
alist in  a  tropical  country.  There  are  certain  qualities 
essential  to  the  life,  and  he  who  does  not  possess  them 
might  as  well  dig  his  grave  as  soon  as  he  enters  the  forest 
and  so  save  himself  further  trouble ;  because  he  will  want 
it  soon  enough. 

Without  a  doubt  the  first  of  these  qualities  is  enthusi- 
asm. Perhaps  one  might  say  that  it  is  the  last  as  well; 
because  that  particular  virtue  seems  to  cover  all  the  rest. 
Decidedly  enthusiasm  here  includes  fearlessness,  unceas- 
ing optimism,  limitless  patience,  the  keen  power  of  ob- 
servation, and  that  wondering  love  of  creatures  and 
things  which  is  characteristic  of  all  children,  and  which  so 
often  atrophies  and  dies  when  childhood  itself  is  fading 
into  a  mere  memory. 

In  no  one  have  these  various  qualities  been  more  marked 
than  in  Charles  Waterton,  the  first  notable  British  natur- 
alist to  tread  the  tropical  forests  of  South  Ajnerica.  But 
in  addition  to  these  ordinary  and  essential  qualities  of 
the  naturalist,  Waterton  possessed  many  more.  He  was 
in  the  first  place  an  all-round  sportsman;  he  possessed  a 
keen  sense  of  humor,  a  wide  knowledge  of  the  classics, 
and  a  peculiarly  genial  temperament.  Had  not  the  term 
been  so  abused,  one  would  have  rejoiced  to  call  Charles 
Waterton  *'a  fine  old  English  gentleman,"  as  indeed  he 
was. 

Waterton 's  wanderings  were  entirely  unconnected  with 
any  pecuniary  benefit  to  himself.  The  squire  of  his 
neighborhood  and  the  owner  of  that  fine  place,  Walton 
Hall  in  Yorkshire,  he  could  have  lived  a  luxurious  life 
had  he  wished.  But  though  Waterton  rode  hard  to 
hounds  and  played  very  thoroughly  the  part  of  a  country 
gentleman,  he  utterly  despised  a  life  of  ease.     His  sleep- 


398      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

ing  room  at  Walton  Hall  possessed  no  carpet,  not  even  a 
bed !  When  the  Squire  of  Walton  felt  inclined  to  sleep — 
which  he  usually  did  in  summer  as  soon  as  it  was  dark, 
rising  again  at  three  o'clock  in  the  morning — he  wrapped 
a  blanket  round  him,  lay  down  on  the  bare  boards,  and 
placed  his  head  on  the  block  of  oak  which  always  served 
him  for  a  pillow. 

This  habit  will  give  some  idea  of  the  peculiarity 
of  Waterton's  temperament.  His  sympathy  with  the 
bright  hues  of  nature  was  such  that  on  no  occasion  what- 
ever— even  when  convention  most  strongly  demanded  it 
— was  he  prevailed  on  to  wear  so  somber  a  thing  as  a 
black  coat.  From  his  boyhood  he  had  proved  himself  de- 
voted to  the  study  of  wild  creatures  of  all  kinds,  but  es- 
pecially to  that  of  birds,  and,  later,  he  undertook  many 
experiments  in  the  way  of  protection  and  refuges  for 
these  creatures.  One  of  these  was  the  nailing  of  dummy 
wooden  pheasants  to  the  trees  of  his  preserves,  having 
persuaded  the  live  and  genuine  birds  to  roost  nearer 
home.  So  when  of  a  night  on  these  occasions  he  would 
hear  the  distant  shots  of  the  poachers,  he  would  chuckle 
to  himself,  knowing  well  enough  that  the  marauders  were 
getting  more  and  more  dumbfounded  at  the  sight  of  those 
dimly  seen  sitting  pheasants  which  obstinately  refused  to 
drop  from  their  branches,  even  when  pumped  full  of  lead ! 

But  it  was  in  South  America  that  Waterton  was  able 
to  give  his  nature-loving  propensities  the  fullest  play. 
The  Guiana  forest  was  his  favorite  hunting  ground,  and 
there  he  roamed,  perfectly  at  home  with  all  the  creatures, 
beloved  by  the  Indians,  and  very  much  respected  by  the 
Portuguese  when  he  happened  to  cross  the  border  into 
Brazil,  the  fact  of  his  being  a  Roman  Catholic  no  doubt 
assisting  him  in  this  latter  intercourse. 

His  roamings  took  him  over  much  of  that  very  country 
that  had  so  enchanted  Raleigh  more  than  two  centuries 
previously,  and  of  which  the  Elizabethan  had  said: 
**  There  is  no  country  which  yieldeth  more  pleasure  to  the 


SOME  BRITISH  NATURALISTS  399 

inhabitants,  either  for  those  common  delights  of  hunting, 
hawking,  fishing,  fowling,  or  the  rest,  than  Guiana  doth. 
It  hath  so  many  plaines,  cleere  rivers,  abundance  of  Phes- 
ants,  Partriges,  Quailes,  Railes,  Cranes,  Herons,  and  all 
other  fowle :  Deere  of  all  sorts,  Porkes,  Hares,  Lions,  Ty- 
gers,  Leopards,  and  divers  other  sortes  of  beastes." 

But  there  was  a  wide  difference  between  the  fortunes 
of  the  two  travelers.  Raleigh  sought  gold,  and  found 
disillusion  and  death,  while  Waterton  strolled  to  and  fro 
in  placid  content — notwithstanding  the  mosquitos ! — seek- 
ing nothing  beyond  the  acquaintance  of  the  forest  crea- 
tures. 

It  is  an  extraordinary  thing  to  one  who  knows  the  na- 
ture of  these  forests  that  Waterton  should  have  been  able 
to  accustom  himself  to  walk  them  barefooted.  He  never 
wore  foot-covering,  although  the  absence  of  this  once 
caused  him  to  be  so  severely  staked  as  to  be  laid  up  for 
some  weeks. 

But  an  accident  of  this  kind  never  seemed  of  any  real 
consequence  to  Waterton.  In  his  enthusiasm  to  dive  deep 
into  the  arms  of  his  mother  nature  he  seemed  actually  to 
succeed  in  making  it  a  matter  of  indifference  to  himself 
whether  he  sustained  any  bodily  hurt  or  not ! 

An  eloquent  instance  of  this  is  to  be  met  with  in  his  in- 
vestigation of  the  habits  of  the  vampire  bat.  Now  this 
vampire  bat  is  a  most  unpleasant  creature,  many  times 
bigger  than  any  bat  we  know  in  England.  Its  most  nota- 
ble predilection  is  to  bore  a  small  hole  in  the  skin  of  sleep- 
ing animals  or  men,  and  through  this  to  suck  up  as  much 
blood  as  it  can  conveniently  hold. 

The  process,  to  say  the  least  of  it,  is  unpopular  among 
human  beings.  For  some  reason  or  other,  best  known 
to  the  vampire  bats,  but  probably  owing  to  the  natural- 
ist's habit  of  bleeding  himself,  Waterton  had  never  been 
submitted  to  it.  This  appeared  to  him  as  something  in 
the  nature  of  an  oversight,  and  in  any  case  as  a  slur  upon 
his  enthusiasm  as  a  naturalist.    As  it  happens,  the  big  toe 


400     BRTTTSH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

is  the  favorite  source  in  human  beings  from  which  this 
demoniacal  visitor  is  wont  to  draw  its  sanguinary  meal, 
and  in  a  vampire-bat-haunted  neighborhood  these  mem- 
bers are  seldom  willingly  exposed.  But  night  after  night 
Waterton  would  hang  out  his  big  toe — invitingly  uncov- 
ered— ^in  order  that  the  bats  might  relieve  him  of  a  pound 
or  so  of  his  blood.  They  never  did.  So  Waterton  had  to 
go  without  his  experience.  He  lamented  the  fact  with  a 
good  deal  of  feeling,  and  ever  afterwards  bore  these  vam- 
pire bats  a  grudge  for  the  poor  compliment  they  had  paid 
him! 

There  is  no  doubt  that  Waterton 's  enthusiasm  was  of  a 
type  which  frequently  proved  most  embarrassing  to  any 
assistant  less  devoted  to  the  science  than  himself — and 
there  surely  could  have  been  no  assistant  who  was  any- 
thing else.  Such  incidents  as  those  attending  the  capture 
of  a  great  Coulacanara  snake — a  creature  of  lesser  length 
than  the  boa-constrictor,  but  of  even  greater  girth,  and 
enormously  powerful — must  have  remained  engraved  for 
a  very  long  time  afterwards  in  the  minds  of  the  two  Ne- 
groes who  took  part  in  it. 

The  great  snake  was  discovered  fast  asleep,  and  Wat- 
erton determined  to  attempt  to  pin  it  behind  the  neck 
with  a  lance,  and  so  to  capture  it  alive.  The  Negroes 
were  terrified  at  the  idea,  but  Waterton,  having  been  for 
years  searching  for  a  specimen  of  this  snake,  was  not  to 
be  turned  from  his  purpose.    In  his  own  words : 

*'I  could  now  read  in  the  face  of  the  Negroes  that  they 
considered  this  a  very  unpleasant  affair;  and  they  made 
another  attempt  to  persuade  me  to  let  them  go  for  a  gun. 
I  smiled  in  a  good-natured  manner,  and  made  a  feint  to 
cut  them  down  with  the  weapon  I  had  in  my  hand.  This 
was  all  the  answer  I  made  to  their  request,  and  they 
looked  very  uneasy." 

One  can  hardly  blame  them  for  that !  It  was  clear  to 
them  that  the  condition  of  any  mere  human  skin  was  about 
to  be  a  matter  of  supreme  indifference  to  Waterton,  pro- 


SOME  BRITISH  NATURALISTS  401 

vided  that  the  snakes  were  secured  uninjured !  But  even 
Waterton  admits  that  his  own  heart  was  beating  quicker 
than  usual,  and  that  he  felt  the  sensations  of  a  passenger 
on  a  merchant  vessel  when,  on  the  approach  of  a  strange 
vessel  under  suspicious  colors,  the  captain  orders  all 
hands  on  deck  to  prepare  for  action. 

However,  Waterton  struck  accurately.  The  giant 
snake  was  pinned  by  the  neck,  and  the  next  second  the 
three  daring  assailants  were  being  flung  to  and  fro  as 
they  clung  desperately  to  its  coils.  In  the  end  victory 
lay  with  the  human  beings,  and,  its  wicked  mouth  strapped 
about  with  the  naturalist's  braces,  it  was  taken  to  a  hut 
nearby.  There,  as  it  was  too  late  for  it  to  be  killed  and 
dissected  that  day,  the  great  creature  spent  the  night  in  a 
sack  within  a  yard  or  two  of  Waterton 's  hammock!  '*I 
cannot  say  that  he  allowed  me  a  good  night,"  complains 
the  Squire  of  Walton;  '*he  was  very  restless  and  fret- 
ful." 

The  temptation  to  quote  Waterton  is  almost  irresisti- 
ble. Here  is  his  account  of  his  meeting  with  a  smaller 
snake  of  the  same  species  a  week  after  he  had  secured  the 
giant,  and  at  the  same  spot : 

''I  observed  a  young  Coulacanara,  ten  feet  long,  slowly 
moving  onwards ;  I  saw  he  was  not  thick  enough  to  break 
my  arm  in  case  he  got  twisted  round  it.  There  was  not  a 
moment  to  be  lost.  I  laid  hold  of  his  tail  with  the  left 
hand,  one  knee  being  on  the  ground ;  with  the  right  I  took 
my  hat,  and  held  it  as  you  would  hold  a  shield  for  defense. 

"The  snake  instantly  turned,  and  came  on  at  me,  with 
his  head  about  a  yard  from  the  ground,  as  if  to  ask  me, 
what  business  I  had  to  take  liberties  with  hi^  tail.  I  let 
him  come,  hissing  and  open-mouthed,  within  two  feet  of 
my  face,  and  then,  with  all  the  force  I  was  master  of,  I 
drove  my  fist,  shielded  by  my  hat,  full  in  his  jaws.  He 
was  stunned  and  confused  by  the  blow,  and  ere  he  could 
recover  himself,  I  had  seized  his  throat  with  both  hands, 
in  such  a  position  that  he  could  not  bite  me;   I  then  al- 


402      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

lowed  him  to  coil  himself  round  my  body,  and  marched 
off  with  him  as  my  lawful  prize.  He  pressed  me  hard, 
but  not  alarmingly  so." 

On  his  way  back  Waterton  occupied  himself — of  a  cer- 
tainty in  his  own  inimitably  jocular  fashion — in  scolding 
an  old  Negro  who  had  fled  in  a  panic  at  the  terrifying 
sight  of  a  mingled  man  and  snake  approaching ! 

His  interludes  between  these  strenuous  occurrences 
were  devoted  largely  to  what  he  himself  would  probably 
have  termed  lighter  recreation.  Thus  half  an  hour  after 
the  capture  of  this  lesser  Coulacanara  he  would  in  all 
probability  have  been  strolling  along  one  of  the  less  en- 
cumbered forest  paths,  spouting  Ovid  or  Livy  to  the  won- 
dering parrots.  For  the  Squire  of  Walton  took  his  fa- 
vorite authors  with  him  everywhere,  and  lived  with  them 
in  the  depths  of  the  forest,  thus  himself  giving  out  a  curi- 
ous atmosphere  of  ancient  Rome  to  his  world  of  endless 
leafage,  where  the  monkeys  chattered  and  unintentionally 
mocked  his  words. 

Of  his  daring  encounters,  the  most  famous  is  that  with 
the  alligator,  but  since  very  little  has  been  heard  of  Wat- 
erton's  feats  of  late  I  will  take  upon  myself  to  repeat  it 
here.  An  alligator  had  been  caught  by  the  Indians  on  a 
baited  hook.  The  Indians  proposed  to  make  an  end  of 
the  monster  by  sending  a  flight  of  arrows  into  it,  but  Wat- 
erton was  determined  to  bring  it  ashore  alive  so  that  its 
hide  might  not  be  injured. 

The  Indians  were  terrified  at  the  idea  of  so  rash  an  un- 
dertaking, but  as  usual  Waterton  had  his  way.  He  ex- 
plained that  no  one  but  himself  need  come  into  contact 
with  the  saurian.  This  explanation  dispelled  the  reluc- 
tance on  the  part  of  his  assistants,  whose  faces  showed  un- 
mistakable relief. 

*'I  then,"  relates  Waterton,  ''mustered  all  hands  for 
the  last  time  before  the  battle.  We  were,  four  South 
American  savages,  two  Negroes  from  Africa,  a  Creole 
from  Trinidad,  and  myself  a  white  man  from  Yorkshire. 


SOME  BRITISH  NATURALISTS  403 

In  fact,  a  little  tower  of  Babel  group,  in  dress,  no  dress, 
address,  and  language." 

Then  Waterton,  having  finally  exhorted  his  motley 
army,  went  down  to  the  water's  edge  to  be  the  first  to 
welcome  the  alligator  on  land.  The  quaint  group  of  his 
assistants  began  to  pull  on  the  rope,  and  presently  the 
great  jaws  of  the  creature  made  their  appearance.  Wat- 
erton himself  confesses  that  he  saw  enough  not  to  fall  in 
love  at  first  sight.  But  he  urged  his  assistants  to  keep 
on  pulling,  while  he  himself  waited  to  see  if  the  beast 
would  make  for  him. 

The  alligator  was  too  alarmed  to  attempt  anything  of 
the  kind.  So  Waterton,  moved  to  one  of  his  wildest 
freaks,  decided  that  he  would  become  the  aggressor.  He 
made  a  run  at  the  alligator,  leaped  into  the  air,  and 
alighted  on  the  animal's  back.  Then,  before  the  alligator 
had  time  to  resent  it,  he  seized  its  forelegs,  and  twisted 
them  over  its  back.  After  that,  seated  astride  the  crea- 
ture, and  hanging  on  to  its  forelegs  as  a  bridle,  he  awaited 
developments. 

They  were  not  long  in  occurring.  The  alligator 
plunged  and  heaved  in  all  directions,  lashing  furiously 
with  its  powerful  tail.  Waterton  observes  that  it  must 
have  been  a  fine  sight  for  an  unoccupied  spectator.  This 
was  evidently  the  opinion  of  the  four  Indians,  the  two 
Negroes,  and  the  Creole,  for  they  cheered  and  applauded 
so  frenziedly  that  they  forgot  all  about  hauling  on  to  the 
rope,  and  for  a  moment  or  two  there  seemed  an  uncom- 
fortable possibility  of  Waterton  and  the  alligator  disap- 
pearing backwards  into  the  water  in  company. 

But  in  the  end  the  alligator  was  drawn  up  safely,  Wat- 
erton still  keeping  his  seat  on  his  strange  buck-jumper 
with  a  success  that  none  but  a  really  good  liorseman  could 
have  hoped  for.  '*It  was  the  first  and  last  time,"  he  says, 
"I  was  ever  on  a  cayman's  back.  Should  it  be  asked  how 
I  managed  to  keep  my  seat,  I  would  answer — I  hunted 
some  years  with  Lord  Darlington's  foxhounds." 


404.     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

Is  it  to  be  wondered  at  that  a  man  like  this  had  a  hold 
over  those  Indians,  Negroes,  and  Creoles  such  as  very 
few  men  of  whatever  complexion  have  possessed  before 
or  since?  Mingled  with  the  love  and  amusement  with 
which  the  most  free-hearted  and  free-handed  of  men  in- 
spired them,  was  an  almost  superstitious  sense  of  rever- 
ence for  the  being  who  knew  no  fear,  and  whose  next 
action  was  no  more  to  be  foretold  than  was  the  track  of 
one  of  their  own  forest  jaguars. 

To  have  seen  this  singular  man  curing  himself,  strictly 
after  his  own  fashion,  of  malarial  fever  must  have  been 
alarming  enough  in  itself.  He  had  an  implicit  faith  in 
the  lancet,  followed  by  doses  of  calomel  and  jalap.  He 
seemed  to  think  nothing  of  draining  himself  of  sixteen 
ounces  of  blood  at  a  time,  and  continued  this  latter  treat- 
ment even  when  attacked  by  what  was  apparently  yellow 
fever ! 

It  must  have  been  a  remarkable  sight,  too,  that  of  Wat- 
erton  walking,  barefoot,  the  tremendous  forests  of  Gui- 
ana, completely  at  his  ease,  absorbed  in  the  loves,  the 
habits,  the  catastrophes  of  the  creatures,  and  in  fact,  in 
every  feather,  hair,  and  habit  of  the  birds  and  beasts.  It 
must  be  admitted  that  the  accidents  ^\dth  which  he  met 
were  innumerable,  being  only  rivaled  by  the  number  of 
his  recoveries!  Nevertheless  the  time  came  when  these 
latter  fell  one  behind,  and  when  Charles  Waterton,  after 
a  severe  fall,  died  as  pluckily  as  he  had  lived. 

But  it  was  not  in  his  beloved  Guiana  forests  that  the 
tragedy  occurred.  It  was  in  his  own  park  at  Walton 
Hall  that  he  met  his  end  many  years  after  he  had  ceased 
to  wander  in  the  tropics.  For  it  was  at  the  ripe  age  of 
eighty-three  that  Waterton 's  life  was  ended — and  that 
by  an  accident ! 

The  next  naturalist  to  visit  South  America  was  one 
of  the  most  famous  scientists  that  England  has  ever  pro- 
duced. The  general  experiences  of  Charles  Darwin — 
who  sailed  from  Devonport  on  the  27th  of  December, 


SOME  BRITISH  NATURALISTS  405 

1831,  in  the  ten-gun  brig  Beagle,  commanded  by  Captain 
Fitzroy — were  infinitely  more  varied  than  those  of 
Charles  Waterton. 

It  was  Darwin's  lot  to  be  brought  into  contact  with 
cities  and  men  as  well  as  with  nature.  With  the  rest  of 
the  Beagle's  company  he  circumnavigated  the  southern 
half  of  the  continent — varying  his  voyage  by  long  cruises 
on  horseback  ashore — from  the  Brazilian  port  of  Bahia 
to  Iquique  in  Peru. 

He  saw  the  Gauchos  at  work  among  the  cattle  in  the 
Pampas ;  he  rode  for  many  hundreds  of  miles  along  the 
plains,  which  were  infested  by  the  fierce,  marauding, 
mounted  Indians  of  the  South;  he  had  some  rough-and- 
ready  encounters  with  the  uncouth  savages  of  Tierra  del 
Fuego.  He  traveled  by  boat  along  the  Parana  and  Uru- 
guay rivers ;  when  inclined  toward  geology  he  proceeded 
to  the  heart  of  the  Andes,  and  subsequently  made  his  ob- 
servations on  the  coastal  desert  of  Peru.  In  the  course 
of  his  wanderings,  too,  he  visited  the  towns  of  Bahia,  Rio 
de  Janeiro,  Montevideo,  Buenos  Aires,  Valparaiso,  San- 
tiago, and  Lima.  He  had  the  advantage,  moreover,  of 
speaking  with  many  South  American  notabilities,  includ- 
ing the  famous  General  Rosas,  who  afterwards  became 
the  despot  of  Argentina. 

From  a  purely  practical  point  of  view,  therefore,  Dar- 
win's South  American  education  was  far  more  liberal 
than  Waterton 's.  On  the  other  hand,  where  Darwin  flit- 
ted from  one  point  to  another  as  a  bird  of  passage,  Wat- 
erton tramped  his  beloved  forests  as  part  and  parcel  of 
their  familiar  soil.  Waterton  was  purely  sylvan  where 
Darwin  was  cosmopolitan. 

Nevertheless  Darwin  did  obtain  just  one  or  two  pass- 
ing glimpses  of  the  Brazilian  forests  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Bahia  and  Rio  de  Janeiro.  He  must  have  fully  appre- 
ciated their  luxuriant  charm,  for  he  himself  says  that 
such  days  bring  to  a  lover  of  natural  history  a  deeper 
pleasure  than  he  can  ever  hope  to  experience   again. 


406     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

Walks  in  England,  he  continues,  in  amazement,  are  en- 
joyable because  of  their  variety  of  attractions,  "but  in 
these  fertile  climates,  teeming  with  life,  the  attractions 
are  so  numerous  that  he  is  scarcely  able  to  walk  at  all." 

But  these  forest  excursions,  doubtless  to  his  regret, 
were  only  rapid  interludes  in  Darwin's  mission.  His 
most  important  work  in  the  continent  was  achieved  in 
the  comparatively  bleak  South.  But  before  he  arrived  in 
the  lower  latitudes  he  had  already  experienced  one  or 
two  minor  adventures.  For  instance,  when  learning  to 
throw  the  "bolas" — the  heavy  stone  balls  fastened  to 
the  ends  of  hide-rope  which,  when  accurately  thrown, 
wind  themselves  round  an  ostrich,  an  ox,  or  any  other 
prey  of  the  Gaucho — Darwin  continued  to  entangle  his 
own  horse's  legs,  to  the  uproarious  amusement  of  the 
Gauchos.  A  little  later  he  and  an  expert  guide  spent  an 
anxious  hour,  dodging  two  figures  whom  the  Gaucho  sus- 
pected to  be  the  advance  guard  of  a  hostile  Indian  force, 
but  who  afterwards  turned  out  to  be  two  local  ladies 
hunting  for  ostrich  eggs ! 

It  is,  after  all,  such  lighter  episodes  as  this  that  serve 
to  illuminate  travels  such  as  Darwin's,  which  abounded  in 
the  most  strenuous  scientific  research.  Some  of  the  chief 
results  were  obtained  in  the  giant  fossilized  remains 
which  the  naturalist  was  so  successful  in  lighting  on.  He 
had  found  such  objects  as  the  fossilized  teeth  of  the  mas- 
todon, toxodon,  and  prehistoric  horse  on  the  banks  of  the 
Parana  Eiver,  as  well  as  the  fossilized  armor  of  the  ex- 
tinct giant  armadillo.  But  these  results  were  trivial  com- 
pared with  those  obtained  in  the  neighborhood  of  Bahia 
Blanca,  which  he  describes  as  a  perfect  catacomb  for 
monsters  of  extinct  races.  At  Port  San  Julian,  too,  he 
was  successful  in  discovering  further  remains  of  the 
greatest  interest. 

When  the  Beagle  penetrated  as  far  south  as  Tierra  del 
Fuego,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  Darwin's  study  of  the 
very  primitive  native  races  of  those  inclement  shores  as- 


SOME  BRITISH  NATURALISTS  407 

sisted  in  the  maturing  of  his  theories  on  the  evolution 
of  man. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Beagle  had  some  rather  special 
intercourse  with  these  natives  on  this  occasion.  During 
the  former  voyage  of  the  Beagle,  which  lasted  from  1826 
to  1830,  Captain  Fitzroy  had  been  forced  by  the  natives' 
behavior  to  take  a  couple  of  their  number  as  hostages. 
He  was  now  bringing  them  back  in  the  Beagle  in  order 
to  repatriate  them. 

This  was  effected  after  a  certain  number  of  complica- 
tions. The  returning  Indians,  having  learned  a  kind  of 
Pidgin-English  in  the  interval,  had  forgotten  their  o^vn 
language!  This  sounds  incredible,  but  was  certainly  a 
fact,  and  is  to  be  accounted  for  by  the  exceedingly  low 
brain  power  of  these  particular  savages.  When  they 
first  came  into  contact  again  with  their  naked,  greasy,  and 
tattooed  relatives,  there  was  a  lack  of  enthusiasm  on  both 
sides.     This  is  Dai'win's  description  of  their  meeting: 

"The  next  morning  after  our  arrival  (the  24th)  the 
Fuegians  began  to  pour  in,  and  Jemmy's  mother  and 
brothers  arrived.  Jemmy  recognized  the  stentorian 
voice  of  one  of  his  brothers  at  a  prodigious  distance.  The 
meeting  was  less  interesting  than  that  between  a  horse, 
turned  out  into  a  field,  when  he  joins  an  old  companion. 
There  was  no  demonstration  of  affection;  they  simply 
stared  for  a  short  time  at  each  other;  and  the  mother 
immediately  went  to  look  after  her  canoe." 

An  attempt  was  made  by  the  Beagle  to  leave  a  mission- 
ary of  the  name  of  Matthews  among  the  Fuegians.  Dar- 
win describes  Matthews  as  a  man  of  quiet  fortitude :  but 
the  experiment  did  not  prove  a  success.  The  Beagle  re- 
turned to  the  spot  where  they  had  left  him  just  in  time  to 
save  his  life.  Night  and  day  the  natives  had  endeavored 
to  tire  him  out,  so  that  he  might  become  off  his  guard, 
when  he  would  have  met  with  his  end. 

The  Beagle  took  Matthews  on  board  again,  and  the 
ship's  company  parted  with  some  reluctance  from  their 


408     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

own  Fuegians,  whom  they  left  learning  little  by  little  to 
become  savages  again.  After  this  Darwin  cruised  up  the 
Pacific  coast,  landing  at  many  places,  and  riding  from 
point  to  point — notably  crossing  the  Andes  from  Chile  to 
Argentina,  and  returning — until  the  Beagle  arrived  at 
the  Galapago  Islands,  whence  she  sailed  for  Tahiti  and 
New  Zealand. 

The  country  which  was  chosen  by  Bates  and  Wallace, 
the  next  two  of  the  especially  notable  naturalists,  lies  be- 
tween Waterton's  field  in  the  North  and  Darwin's  varied 
excursions  in  the  South.  Bates  and  Wallace  chose  the 
system  of  the  great  Amazon  itself,  the  land  where  water 
and  forest  run  side  by  side  and  intermingle,  and  where — 
as  I  have  had  occasion  to  say  before — the  landscape  is 
painted  in  three  unalterable  colors,  yellow,  green,  and 
blue — the  yellow  of  the  streams,  the  green  of  the  forest, 
and  the  blue  of  the  sky.  The  Amazon  Valley  is  one  of 
the  few  places  left  on  earth  which  still  retain  their  mys- 
tery, and  even  to  this  day  the  secrets  held  by  many  thou- 
sands of  square  miles  of  the  densest  vegetation  on  earth 
have  still  to  be  revealed. 

Henry  Bates  and  A.  R.  Wallace  arrived  together  in  a 
small  trading  vessel  at  the  mouth  of  the  Amazon  in  May, 
1848.  So  far  as  Mr.  Bates  was  concerned,  this  was  the 
prelude  to  ten  years  of  practically  uninterrupted  wan- 
derings along  the  innumerable  streams  of  the  Amazon 
and  through  the  jungle  that  covers  its  banks.  The  ex- 
tent of  the  work  achieved  by  Bates  may  be  judged  from 
the  fact  that  in  one  place  alone  he  discovered  no  less  than 
seven  thousand  species  of  insects ! 

As  a  forest  naturalist  Bates'  enthusiasm  rivaled  Wat- 
erton's, and  it  seemed  to  him  at  times  that  he  was  in  an 
enchanted  country  that  held  more  and  more  surprises  for 
a  lover  of  nature  the  deeper  he  penetrated  into  its  matted 
glades.  Sometimes  the  wonders  he  was  apt  to  encounter 
were  of  the  kind  which  many  people  might  consider  of  the 
nightmare  order.     For  instance,  he  himself  relates  in 


SOME  BRITISH  NATURALISTS  409 

connection  with  the  gigantic  migale  spider  of  the  forest : 
' '  One  day  I  saw  the  children  belonging  to  an  Indian  fam- 
ily, who  collected  for  me,  with  one  of  these  monsters 
secured  by  a  cord  round  its  waist,  by  which  they  were 
leading  it  about  the  house  as  they  would  a  dog. ' ' 

Now  of  course  this  is  the  sort  of  story  that  the  ordi- 
nary cautious  person  would  not  tell  to  every  one !  It  is 
the  kind  of  episode  for  which  you  should  choose  your 
audience  with  extreme  care,  and  even  then  you  should  un- 
cork its  tale  very  gently !  This  would  apply,  of  course,  to 
an  ordinary  man,  addressing  an  audience  unacquainted 
with  the  Amazon  forests.  Bates  was  not  an  ordinary 
man,  and  his  mere  word,  like  that  of  his  brother  South 
American  naturalists,  sufficed  for  the  accuracy  of  any 
statement  he  made.  As  to  an  audience  acquainted  with 
the  Amazon  jungle :  they  would  admit  that  it  was  a  large 
spider,  and  there  the  matter  would  end ! 

Indeed,  Bates,  like  every  one  else  who  has  entered  the 
vast  country  of  the  Amazon,  was  destined  to  find  out  that 
it  contained  a  certain  number  of  imaginary  perils,  but 
many  more  real  dangers.  The  most  appalling  of  the  for- 
mer was  undoubtedly  the  roar  of  the  howling  monkey,  a 
small  and  quite  harmless  creature  with  a  peculiarly 
formed  larynx,  which  enables  it  to  give  out  a  most  un- 
earthly bellowing  quite  as  full-toned  and  terrifying  as  the 
roar  of  a  lion. 

Even  the  enthusiastic  Bates  admitted  that  this  terrible 
noise  made  it  difficult  to  retain  a  buoyancy  of  spirit.  I 
can  do  no  better  than  employ  some  of  his  o'wn  words  in 
describing  some  of  these  noises  of  the  tropical  forest : 

''Sometimes,  in  the  midst  of  the  stillness,  a  sudden  yell 
or  scream  will  startle  one;  this  comes  from  some  de- 
fenseless fruit-eating  animal,  which  is  pounced  upon  by  a 
tiger-cat  or  stealthy  boa-constrictor  .  .  .  often,  even  in 
the  still  hours  of  midday,  a  sudden  crash  will  be  heard 
resounding  afar  through  the  wilderness,  as  some  great 
bough  or  entire  tree  falls  to  the  ground.     There  are,  be- 


410     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

sides,  many  sounds  which  it  is  impossible  to  account  for. 
I  found  the  natives  generally  as  much  at  a  loss  in  this  re- 
spect as  myself.  Sometimes  a  sound  is  heard  like  the 
clang  of  an  iron  bar  against  a  hard,  hollow  tree,  or  a 
piercing  cry  rends  the  air ;  these  are  not  repeated,  and  the 
succeeding  silence  tends  to  heighten  the  unpleasant  im- 
pression which  they  make  on  the  mind.*' 

None  of  these  things  would  tend  to  soothe  the  spirits 
of  a  person  wandering  about  in  the  midst  of  a  perfectly 
safe  country — and  by  no  stretch  of  imagination  could  the 
Amazon  jungle  be  termed  that.  The  dangers  and  dis- 
comforts with  which  Bates  was  surrounded  were  quite 
sufficient  in  themselves  without  having  any  imaginary 
perils  added.  There  were  the  storms  which  worked  up 
with  lightning  rapidity  on  the  wide  stretches  of  the  great 
river,  raising  waves  that  over  and  over  again  all  but 
wrecked  the  boat  on  which  he  was  traveling.  There  were 
drunken  and  lazy  canoe  Indians,  much  given  to  deserting 
before  they  had  worked  out  their  pay.  Ashore,  the  ja- 
guar, the  boa-constrictor,  and  a  dozen  other  most  impor- 
tant enemies  of  man  were  ready  to  resent  in  the  most  un- 
pleasant fashion  any  unintentional  disturbance  of  their 
forest  rights.  Most  of  the  Indians  were  friendly,  it  is 
true,  but  not  all,  and  in  some  districts  it  was  never  certain 
that  a  horde  of  painted  and  feathered  savages  would  not 
rush  in  to  the  attack  at  any  moment.  There  were  whites, 
too,  "bad  men,"  who  were  notoriously  handy  with  their 
bullets;  there  was  the  lack  of  wholesome  food;  there 
was  the  ordinary  malaria,  and,  above  all,  there  was  the 
dreaded  yellow  fever. 

Bates  did  not  escape  this  most  terrible  disease.  Fail- 
ing medical  assistance,  he  was  his  own  doctor,  and  con- 
tinued to  treat  himself  even  when  the  attack  was  at  its 
height,  and  it  was  to  his  own  efforts  that  he  owed  his  re- 
covery. 

But  no  danger  or  hardship  could  deter  Bates.  Year 
after  year  he  went  on,  fighting  the  heat,  the  insects,  and 


SOME  BRITISH  NATURALISTS  411 

all  the  other  enemies  of  mankind,  spending  day  after  day 
in  the  study  of  a  single  species  of  ant,  bird,  or  beast,  and 
adding  to  his  invaluable  collections  all  the  time. 

No  European,  however,  can  afford  to  despise  the  cli- 
mate of  the  Amazons  for  many  years  on  end.  Bates's 
health  was  undermined,  and  undoubtedly  none  but  a  man 
of  his  inflexible  courage  could  have  continued  his  work  in 
the  forests  for  as  long  as  he  did.  In  the  end  a  serious 
attack  of  ague  left  him  w^ith  shattered  health,  and  settled 
his  business  for  good  and  all. 

Even  then  it  was  only  with  the  greatest  reluctance  that 
Bates — after  various  desperate  attempts  to  renew  his  ex- 
cursions into  the  jungle  had  resulted  in  nothing  beyond 
further  shivering  fits — packed  up  his  collections,  and 
prepared  to  sail  for  England,  the  only  course  by  which 
his  life  might  be  saved. 

Once  on  board  the  sailing  vessel,  it  was  with  the  keen- 
est regret  that  he  watched  the  thick  yellow  of  the  Amazon 
waters  fade  into  the  clear  blue  of  the  open  ocean.  He 
had  become  a  child  of  the  Amazon  by  temperament.  It 
was  his  constitution  that  had  failed  him,  as  must  that 
of  every  European  in  such  surroundings.  He  himself, 
admitting  his  gloomy  reflections  at  that  moment, 
says : 

''A  crowd  of  unusual  thoughts  occupied  my  mind. 
Recollections  of  English  climate,  scenery,  and  modes  of 
life  came  to  me  with  a  vividness  I  had  never  before  ex- 
perienced during  the  eleven  years  of  my  absence.  Pic- 
tures of  startling  clearness  rose  up  of  the  gloomy  win- 
ters, the  long  gray  twilights,  murky  atmosphere,  elon- 
gated shadows,  chilly  springs,  and  sloppy  summers;  of 
factory  chimneys  and  crowds  of  grimy  operatives,  rung 
to  work  in  early  morning  by  factory  bells ;  of  union  work- 
houses, confined  rooms,  artificial  cares,  and  slavish  con- 
ventionalities. To  live  again  amidst  these  dull  scenes  I 
was  quitting  a  country  of  perpetual  summer,  where  my 
life  had  been  spent  like  that  of  three-fourths  of  the  people 


412      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

in  gipsy  fashion,  on  the  endless  streams,  or  in  the  bound- 
less forests." 

At  the  moment  of  parting,  as  was  natural  enough, 
Bates  seems  completely  to  have  forgotten  that  there  was 
a  very  dark  side  to  the  tropical  existence,  and  a  very 
bright  one  to  English  life.  But  after  a  time  this  became 
clear  to  him,  for  he  writes : 

' '  It  was  natural  to  feel  a  little  dismayed  at  the  prospect 
of  so  great  a  change;  but  now,  after  three  years'  renewed 
experience  of  England,  I  find  how  incomparably  superior 
is  civilized  life,  where  feelings,  tastes,  and  intellect,  find 
abundant  nourishment,  to  the  spiritual  sterility  of  half- 
savage  existence,  even  though  it  be  passed  in  the  Garden 
of  Eden." 

The  experiences  of  Mr.  A.  E.  Wallace,  who  sailed  out 
to  the  Amazon  in  the  same  vessel  as  Bates,  were  naturally 
of  a  similar  nature.  Wallace,  however,  undertook  an 
even  greater  number  of  canoe  journeys,  and  his  adven- 
tures here  were  even  more  diversified  than  those  of  Bates. 
He  passed  many  months  in  canoes  which  proved  them- 
selves rotten  and  leaky,  and  sometimes  in  a  strong  wind 
squall  it  was  a  question  of  minutes  as  to  whether  the  wind 
would  die  down  or  the  frail  vessel  go  to  pieces.  On  one 
occasion  in  the  midst  of  a  stormy  and  pitch-dark  night, 
Wallace's  boat  was  laboring  so  much  that  all  hope  was 
abandoned.  All  at  once,  just  as  those  on  board  were  ex- 
pecting to  find  themselves  in  the  waves,  their  craft  be- 
came perfectly  still.  As  the  gale  was  still  howling  as 
loudly  as  ever,  the  thing  seemed  perfectly  inexplicable, 
until  the  morning  showed  them  that  their  cranky  little 
ship  had,  most  fortunately  for  its  occupants,  run  into  one 
of  those  enormous  beds  of  floating  grass  which  are  fairly 
common  on  the  Amazon,  and  which  had  sheltered  the 
canoe  from  an  otherwise  certain  destruction.  All  this  is 
to  say  nothing  of  the  cataracts ;  for  it  was  now  and  then 
Wallace's  lot  to  have  to  undertake  the  passage  of  no 


SOUTH  AMERICAN   INDIANS 


SOME  BRITISH  NATURALISTS  413 

fewer  than  ten  distinct  dangerous  rapids  in  the  course  of 
a  single  day! 

His  Indian  assistants,  moreover,  were  no  more  satis- 
factory than  those  of  Bates.  Sometimes  the  local  au- 
thorities pressed  them  very  unceremoniously  into  the 
service,  and  once  one  of  Wallace's  Indians  insisted  on 
leaving  him  in  order  to  return  and  kill  a  Brazilian  who 
had  ill-treated  him!  Another  of  the  naturalist's  assist- 
ants was  a  youthful  but  refractory  character  who  wore  a 
large  chain  round  his  body  and  leg  as  a  punishment.  This 
was  concealed  beneath  his  trousers,  but  it  clanked  with  a 
sinister  and  disagreeable  sound  at  every  step  he  took. 

Even  the  people  of  authority  in  those  regions  of  that 
day  were  by  no  means  devoid  of  their  own  peculiarities. 
There  seemed  no  reason  in  the  least,  for  instance,  why 
the  commandant  of  a  district  should  not  be  a  murderer  at 
the  same  time,  providing  he  were  powerful  enough  to 
maintain  his  authority.  In  many  neighborhoods  the  most 
ordinary  forms  of  morality  were  nonexistent,  which  is 
not  surprising  in  view  of  the  example  set  by  a  certain 
number  of  the  local  priests.  One  of  these — who  had  pre- 
viously been  a  soldier — confided  to  Wallace  that  he  had  a 
great  respect  for  his  cloth,  and  never  did  anything  to 
disgrace  it — in  the  daytime! 

Wallace,  in  spite  of  every  discouragement,  including  a 
frequent  meagerness  of  rations,  continued  to  drift  about 
the  countless  streams  of  the  Amazon,  landing  from  time 
to  time  to  make  a  fire  and  cook,  and  setting  out  along  the 
bank  with  collecting  net  and  shot-gun.  Sometimes  in  the 
narrower  streams  the  canoe  became  filled  with  ants,  "of 
fifty  different  species,"  says  Wallace,  "each  producing 
its  own  peculiar  effect,  from  a  gentle  tickle  to  an  acute 
sting."  Then  there  were  swarms  of  wasps,  and  of  course 
the  insatiable  and  inevitable  mosquito,  and  last,  but  not 
least,  the  ferocious  pium  fly,  from  whose  bites  the  blood 
ran  freely. 


414f     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

Wallace's  journeyings  brought  him  more  into  contact 
with  the  forest  Indian  tribes  than  did  those  of  the  other 
naturalists  I  have  referred  to.  He  would  often  put  in 
his  appearance  at  one  of  the  great  maloccas,  the  tribal 
huts  w^here  many  families  lived  together  in  a  species  of 
primitive  socialistic  existence.  The  appearance  of  many 
of  these  people,  painted  gaily  and  adorned  on  festal  oc- 
casions with  a  wealth  of  most  brilliant  feathers,  was 
striking  in  the  extreme,  and  Wallace  has  given  many 
excellent  descriptions  of  their  costume,  dances,  customs, 
rude  rock  carvings,  weapons,  and  of  the  manner  in  which 
they  contrived  their  curious  blow-pipes.  '"  '  - 

As  regards  his  interest  in  the  wild  creatures  them- 
selves of  the  forest,  it  will  be  seen  from  the  following 
that  Wallace  was  a  worthy  comrade  of  the  other  three. 
One  day  in  the  depths  of  the  forest  he  met  that  most 
fierce  creature,  a  black  jaguar,  face  to  face.  For  a  mo- 
ment the  two  gazed  fully  at  each  other,  then  the  jaguar 
walked  steadily  on,  and  disappeared  in  the  jungle. 

''This  encounter  pleased  me  much,"  observes  Wallace 
quite  calmly.  "I  was  too  much  surprised,  and  occupied 
too  much  with  admiration,  to  feel  fear.  I  had  at  length 
had  a  full  view,  in  his  native  wilds,  of  the  rarest  variety 
of  the  most  powerful  and  dangerous  animal  inhabiting 
the  American  continent."  This  was,  of  course,  the  view 
of  a  confirmed  naturalist.  The  majority  of  us  surely 
would  have  felt  the  fear  first  and  w^ould  have  reserved 
the  admiration  for  a  later  and  more  convenient  occasion ! 

The  Amazon  climate  was  less  merciful  to  Wallace  than 
the  jaguar.  After  many  minor  bouts  of  fever  he  found 
himself  completely  laid  up  by  a  violent  attack  and  by  sub- 
sequent fits  of  ague,  while  his  Indians,  joyously  seizing 
so  bounteous  an  occasion,  made  themselves  drunk  with 
the  spirit  which  he  had  brought  with  him  to  preserve 
his  specimens. 

Wallace's  time  had  come,  for  a  second  hint  of  the  kind 
would  have  been  the  last.     Packing  up  his  collections, 


SOME  BRITISH  NATURALISTS  415 

he  made  his  way  toward  the  coast,  while  the  visions  of 
glad  English  fare,  and  even  of  the  intense  luxury  of  sim- 
ple bread  and  butter,  now  rose  up  before  him  with  a 
warmth  and  clearness  that  had  been  denied  to  Bates. 

Wallace  succeeded  in  boarding  the  homeward-bound 
vessel  in  safety.  But  the  ship  caught  fire,  and  was  burned 
at  sea.  After  many  days  in  boats,  the  crew  and  the  pas- 
sengers were  saved.  But  Wallace  had  nothing  but  what 
he  stood  up  in.  All  his  collections,  the  fruits  of  his  labors 
in  the  Amazon  forests,  were  at  the  bottom  of  a  tropical 
sea!  The  blow  was  a  severe  one.  ''Everything  was 
^  3,"  he  complained,  "and  I  had  not  one  specimen  to 
illustrate  the  unknown  lands  I  had  trod,  or  to  call  back 
the  recollections  of  the  wild  scenes  I  had  beheld." 

But  after  this  he  seems  to  have  settled  himself  down 
to  his  writings,  and  to  have  made  the  best  of  it,  as  an 
Amazon  naturalist  could  scarcely  fail  to  do. 

The  last  member  of  this  group  of  famous  naturalists 
is  Richard  Spruce,  who  sailed  from  Liverpool  to  South 
America  in  1849.  Spruce  remained  among  the  tropical 
rivers,  forests,  and  mountains  until  1864,  when,  after  a 
sojourn  of  fifteen  years  among  surroundings  the  enchant- 
ment of  which  continued  unabated,  the  climate  obtained  its 
inevitable  victory,  and  sent  him  home  to  England  in  shat- 
tered health. 

Compared  with  his  colleagues  of  this  chapter.  Spruce 
was  a  botanist  rather  than  a  zoologist.  Nevertheless, 
although  he  paid  special  attention  to  the  marvelous  vege- 
tation of  the  Amazon  and  Orinoco  basins,  and  the  Vene- 
'zuelan  and  Ecuadorian  highlands,  he  has  a  certain 
amount  to  say  concerning  the  habits  of  the  local  fauna, 
and  a  good  deal  more  concerning  the  anthropology  of  the 
northern  districts  of  the  continent. 

It  is  no  doubt  to  be  regretted  that  on  his  death  in  1893 
at  the  age  of  seventy-six  he  should  have  left  behind  him 
no  complete  volume  containing  the  records  of  his  experi- 
ences and  life  work.     Nevertheless  this  deficiency  has 


416     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

been  made  good  by  the  veteran  Mr.  Wallace,  who,  with 
all  the  sympathy  of  friendship  and  knowledge,  has  edited 
Spruce's  notes,  letters,  and  numerous  publications  of 
lesser  bulk. 

Richard  Spruce  was  a  Yorkshireman  in  whom  the  love 
of  botany  had  burned  since  his  earliest  years.  He  had 
abandoned  the  scholastic  profession  for  the  career  of  a 
botanist  for  almost  half  a  dozen  years  before  an  oppor- 
tunity came  to  him  to  transfer  his  researches  to  the  great 
South  American  field — an  opportunity  which  no  man  of 
his  temperament  could  fail  to  embrace  with  enthusiasm. 

Spruce,  having  landed  at  Para,  soon  found  himself 
amid  the  full  wonders  of  the  Amazon  forest.  Here  is  his 
account  of  one  of  the  earliest  adventures  which  befell  him 
and  a  companion: 

''On  the  second  or  third  night  of  our  sojourn  at  Caripi, 
happening  to  awake  a  little  after  midnight,  I  saw  King 
lying  with  his  head  out  of  his  hammock  and  nearly  touch- 
ing the  ground,  while  close  by  his  ear  sate  a  sooty  imp, 
which  from  its  size  might  be  a  big  toad,  like  Eve's  dream- 
prompter  ;  but  the  lamp  which  burnt  dimly  in  a  corner  of 
the  room  gave  too  little  light  to  allow  me  to  see  clearly 
what  it  was.  I  leaped  from  my  hammock,  seized  my 
tergado,  sprang  across  the  room,  and  as  I  pinned  the 
monster  to  the  ground,  he  opened  wide  his  wings  and 
show^ed  himself  to  be  a  young  bat  of  the  largest  kind.  I 
had  scarcely  performed  this  feat  when  the  two  parent 
bats  sallied  forth  from  the  roof  and  attacked  me;  and 
when  I  beat  them  off,  they  flew  round  and  round  the 
room,  attempting  to  strike  me  with  their  wings  every 
time  they  passed  me,  and  I  them  with  my  tergado.  By 
this  time  King  was  wide  awake,  and  seeing  the  odd  com- 
bat that  was  going  on,  but  not  knowing  how  it  had  or- 
iginated, sat  up  in  his  hammock  convulsed  with  laughter, 
in  which  I  heartily  joined." 

After  various  excursions  Spruce  set  out  from  Para  for 
Santarem  in  an  eighty-ton  brig  owned  by  a  Captain  His- 


SOME  BRITISH  NATURALISTS  417 

lop,  an  old  settler  on  the  Amazon,  and  a  sufficiently  no- 
table character  in  his  way.  At  Santarem  he  made  the  ac- 
quaintance of  Wallace,  and  it  is  almost  unnecessary  to 
add  that  the  friendship  between  the  two  kindred  tem- 
peraments was  instantaneous. 

It  was  in  1850  during  Spruce's  residence  at  Santarem, 
that  the  blight  of  the  yellow  fever  descended  suddenly 
upon  the  Amazon  for  the  first  time.  On  that  occasion 
Santarem  escaped — although  whether  the  precautions 
adopted  by  the  panic-stricken  inhabitants  of  that  town 
brought  about  the  immunity  is  more  than  doubtful.  One 
of  these  consisted  of  dragging  field  guns  through  the 
streets  and  of  firing  them  at  short  intervals  in  order  to 
clear  the  atmosphere  of  the  fatal  germs ! 

On  the  whole,  Spruce's  existence  in  tropical  South 
America  was  very  similar  to  that  of  his  predecessors 
and  colleagues.  He  suffered  from  the  same  perils  of 
tempests,  river  rapids,  disease,  and  occasional  famine. 
In  his  relations  with  the  Indians  he  underwent  a  greater 
number  of  narrow  escapes  than  any  of  the  rest. 

It  is  difficult  to  imagine  a  more  depressing  situation 
than,  fever-stricken,  to  be  lying  at  death's  door  in  the 
charge  of  an  old  Indian  hag,  whose  salutation  would  take 
the  form  of  such  adjurations  as:  "Die,  you  English 
dog,  that  we  may  have  a  merry  night  with  your  dollars ! ' ' 
Very  little  pleasanter  can  it  be  to  lie  in  a  hammock, 
straining  one's  ear  to  catch  the  whispers  of  the  Indian 
attendants  planning  to  murder  the  white  man  as  soon  as 
he  should  have  fallen  asleep ! 

On  the  one  occasion,  moreover,  when  Spruce  obtained 
the  rarest  of  all  apparent  boons,  the  assistance  of  an  Eng- 
lishman in  the  lonely  waters  of  the  Upper  Amazon  basin, 
his  good  luck  turned  out  to  be  far  less  pronounced  than 
he  had  imagined.  The  man  in  question  was  a  sailor  who 
had  entered  the  country  in  company  with  a  number  of 
other  Englishmen  and  Americans  who  had  been  attracted 
to  the   spot  by  a  false  report  of  gold  on  the  Upper 


418      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

Maranon.  To  all  appearances  a  quiet  and  respectable 
man,  his  true  nature  became  evident  all  too  soon  after 
Spruce  had  engaged  him.  The  botanist  discovered  that 
it  was  the  newcomer's  intention  to  murder  him  on  the 
first  opportunity  for  the  cash  he  carried,  and,  once  put  on 
the  alert,  he  found  out  to  his  dismay  that  this  seemingly 
honest  sailorman  had  already  been  imprisoned  in  Peru 
for  murder.  The  man's  violence,  combined  with  a  deaf- 
ness which  caused  him  to  imagine  that  all  laughter  on 
the  part  of  others  was  directed  at  his  own  person,  made 
him  a  continual  danger  to  all  the  Portuguese  and  Indians 
with  whom  he  was  brought  into  contact.  Spruce  was 
glad  to  get  rid  of  his  truculent  assistant  at  a  consider- 
able monetary  sacrifice;  but  it  was  not  without  regret 
that  he  heard  subsequently  that  the  sailor  had  met  his 
death  at  the  hands  of  the  Indians. 

Compared  with  these  adventures,  it  was  a  minor  ex- 
perience which  befell  the  botanist  when  climbing  the  vol- 
cano Pichincha,  near  Quito,  and  which  he  thus  describes : 

"I  had  only  lately  emerged  from  the  sickroom,  and 
got  very  much  fatigued  with  the  two  hours  of  steep, 
rugged  climbing.  At  the  highest  point  we  reached,  we 
lay  down  to  rest  on  the  grass,  and  I  had  lain  a  few  min- 
utes with  my  eyes  closed  when  I  suddenly  felt  as  it  were 
a  flag  waved  over  my  face,  and  looking  up  saw  an  im- 
mense condor  sailing  over  us  at  only  a  few  feet  distance. 
My  companion  sprang  to  his  feet  with  a  shriek,  and 
prepared  to  defend  himself  with  his  staff.  'He  thinks 
we  are  dead,'  said  he,  'and  if  we  had  lain  a  moment  longer 
we  should  have  felt  his  beak  and  claws  in  our  faces!' 
The  condor  was  immediately  joined  by  two  others  of  his 
species,  but  being  baulked  of  their  prey,  they  rose  in 
slowly  widening  circles,  and  at  length  appeared  only 
specks  on  the  bright  heaven." 

Occasionally  a  gleam  of  humor  lightened  Spruce's 
travels,  but  not  often.  Undoubtedly  one  of  the  rare  in- 
stances of  this  was  afforded  by  the  trader  who  had  been 


SOME  BRITISH  NATURALISTS  419 

commissioned  by  Dr.  Natterer  to  procure  him  some 
sarsaparilla  seed,  but,  being,  according  to  his  own  lights, 
a  patriotic  person,  he  dreaded  the  consequences  to  his 
country  that  would  arise  from  its  successful  cultivation 
in  a  foreign  land.  So,  in  order  to  prevent  any  danger  of 
the  kind,  he  carefully  boiled  the  seed  before  handing  it 
over  to  the  unsuspecting  Doctor  Natterer ! 

Spruce  did  not  confine  his  wanderings  to  the  Amazon 
forests.  His  botanical  excursions  included  Venezuela, 
the  Orinoco,  and  the  Ecuadorian  Andes,  and  frequently 
caused  him  to  pay  fleeting  visits  to  the  centers  of  civiliza- 
tion. The  longevity  of  some  of  his  countrymen  whom 
he  met  with  in  the  lofty  mountain  towns  of  Ecuador 
caused  him  no  small  amount  of  natural  amazement.  He 
mentions  a  Doctor  Jervis,  nephew  of  the  first  Earl  of 
St.  Vincent,  who  died  at  Cuenca  at  the  age  of  a  hundred 
and  fifteen,  and  at  Quito  he  met  with  a  Mr.  Cope,  who,  al- 
though he  counted  eighty-five  years,  trotted  about  as 
nimbly  as  a  young  man. 

Nevertheless  the  span  of  life  of  these  very  British 
naturalists — fever-riddled  as  they  were — ^would  in  itself 
seem  to  shatter  the  ordinary  theories  concerning  climate 
and  age.  I  have  no  note  concerning  Bates's  death;  but 
all  the  others  exceeded  seventy  years,  and,  indeed,  the 
average  age  of  the  four  would  be  somewhere  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  seventy-five !  In  the  face  of  the  quite  excep- 
tional perils  undergone  by  all  of  climate,  reptiles,  rivers, 
and  fellow  men,  this  is  surely  a  most  amazing  record ! 

Much,  of  course,  has  been  accomplished  since  these  five 
splendid  naturalists  achieved  their  work.  Among  the 
later  men  who  have  distinguished  themselves  in  the  same 
field — though  not  necessarily  in  the  same  latitudes — is 
that  fine  writer,  W.  H.  Hudson.  But  to  attempt  to  refer 
to  the  deeds  of  the  later  British  naturalists  would  be  to 
require  a  larger  volume  than  this. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

SOUTH    AMERICA    IN    ENGLISH    PEINT 

Scope  of  the  chapter — Periods  of  the  literature  dealing  with  South  Amer- 
ice — Nature  of  the  first  works  dealing  with  the  continent — Difficulties 
of  the  early  chroniclers  in  the  face  of  the  Spanish  policy — Hakluyt 
and  Purchas — Some  salient  passages  from  Hakluyt — Writings  of  Sir 
Walter  Raleigh — Sir  Richard  Hawkins — Esquemeling — John  Ogilby — 
Bucaneer  authors — Sir  John  Narbrough — Raleigh  and  Mandeville — 
Eighteenth-century  popular  geography — Gordon's  work — A  paragraph 
from  Guthrie — Methods  of  the  early  illustrators — Charles  Brockwell 
— The  voyage  and  adventures  of  Captain  Robert  Boyle — Anson's  voy- 
age— Other  sea-records  of  the  period — Dr.  Samuel  Johnson  on  the 
Falkland  Islands — Thomas  Falkner's  description  of  Patagonia — 
Robertson's  history  of  South  America — How  "The  Present  State  of 
Peru"  was  published — Volumes  dealing  with  mission  work  and  ship- 
wreck— Adventures  of  John  Davie — Literature  following  the  British 
expedition  to  the  river  Plate — Molina's  work  translated  into  English 
by  Washington  Irving — The  various  types  of  nineteenth-century  Brit- 
ish writers  on  South  America — The  first  travel  books  proper — Some 
examples — Captain  Head's  work — Curious  preface  to  an  anonymous 
book — Various  volumes  of  the  1820's — J.  P.  and  W.  I*.  Robertson's 
books — Early  nineteenth-century  works  on  Brazil  and  its  new  court 
— Robert  Southey's  history  of  Brazil — Henderson's  history — Works  by 
Mrs.  Graham,  John  Luceock,  G.  F.  Mathison,  and  the  Rev.  R.  Walsh 
— Literature  on  the  Pacific  coast — Aquatints — Books  on  the  Northern 
republics — Some  impressions  of  Bolivar — Captain  Cochrane's  journal 
— Waterton  and  Darwin — Some  records  of  salt  and  fresh  water  voy- 
ages— Armitage's  history  of  Brazil — Travel  books — Sir  Woodbine 
Parish  and  Captain  Allen  F.  Gardiner — Two  curious  publications — 
Volumes  on  the  river  Plate — Prescott's  "History  of  the  Conquest  of 
Peru" — Various  publications  of  the  1840's — Works  of  Sir  Arthur 
Helps  and  Sir  William  Gore  Ousely — Publications  by  the  Naturalists, 
Wallace,  Bates,  and  Spruce — Further  travel  books — Hinchliff's  work — 
C.  B.  Mansfield — A  notable  personality — The  charm  of  his  relation 
of  his  South  American  experiences — Various  extracts — His  journey 
to  Paraguay — Some  United  States  publications — The  work  of  Gilliss 
and  Ewbank — Kidder  and  Fletcher  on  Brazil — The  cruise  of  the 
Wateruitch — Admiral  Cochrane's  memoirs — Volumes  by  Bollaert, 
Hutchinson,  and  Latham — Some  extracts  from  the  last — Miscellaneous 
volumes — Books  dealing  with  the  Paraguayan  war — Sir  Richard  Bur- 

420 


SOUTH  AMERICA  IN  ENGLISH  PRINT         421 

ton — Indian  adventure — Translation  of  a  notable  book — A  long  vaca- 
tion in  the  Argentine  Alps — Modern  writers  whose  fame  is  not  con- 
fined to  South  America — Lord  Bryce,  R.  B.  Cunninghame  Graham, 
W.  H.  Hudson,  Sir  Martin  Conway — Sir  Clements  Markham — Books 
on  British  Guiana  and  the  Falkland  Islands. 


THE  length  to  which  this  chapter  has  attained  de- 
mands some  explanation.  Let  its  chief  cause  be 
put  at  the  fact  that  while  the  scope  of  the  topic 
of  the  British  writers  on  South  America  is  a  large  one, 
the  scope  of  their  writings  must  of  necessity  be  consid- 
derably  wider!  And,  in  considering  the  authors,  it  is 
impossible  to  separate  them  from  their  work. 

I  have  tried  to  avoid  the  lengths  to  which  an  excur- 
sion into  this  latter  tempts  the  student.  Nevertheless, 
since  so  much  of  the  subject  matter  of  these  books  is 
directly  concerned  with  the  thread  of  this  story,  it  would 
have  seemed  a  waste  of  opportunity  not  to  extract  here 
and  there  some  of  the  more  salient  features  from  the 
pages.  In  doing  this,  some  authors  must,  of  course,  be 
led  forward  somewhat  at  the  expense  of  others,  whose 
work  may  be  considered  of  equal  merit.  But  even  the 
possibility  of  such  injustice  as  this  is  surely  preferable 
to  the  tedious  alternative  of  quoting  the  similar  views 
or  experiences  of  two  authorities  on  the  same  subject. 

Occasionally  I  have  quoted  at  some  length — more  espe- 
cially in  the  case  of  Mansfield — but  this  is  only  where  it 
has  seemed  to  me  that  the  literary  style  of  the  writer, 
added  to  the  value  of  the  experiences,  justified  such 
wholesale  gleanings. 

It  must  be  explained  that — up  to  the  year  1870 — the 
books  referred  to  here  are  in  no  way  supposed  to  con- 
stitute a  comprehensive  list.  But  for  the  ordinary 
student  of  South  American  affairs  they  will,  I  hope,  suf- 
fice as  an  index  for  a  practical  and  efficient  course  of 
reading. 

In  an  attempt  of  this  kind  the  great  number  of  books 
which  come  crowding  forward  with  legitimate  demands 


422     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

for  attention  have  made  it  impossible  to  include  pam- 
phlets or  the  numerous  notable  articles  in  the  Royal  Geo- 
graphical Society's  magazine,  and  other  publications  of 
the  kind.  Indeed,  considerations  of  space  have  prevented 
separate  mention  of  many  of  the  very  large  number  of 
valuable  works  dealing  with  South  America  published 
by  the  Hakluyt  Society. 

On  the  other  hand,  seeing  that  in  subjects  of  this  kind 
North  American  works  appeal  to  much  the  same  public 
as  do  the  British,  it  has  seemed  advisable  to  include 
many  of  the  most  notable  books  by  American  authors  pub- 
lished in  the  United  States.  Here  the  remark  concern- 
ing the  entire  absence  of  any  claim  to  a  comprehensive 
list  applies  with  greater  force. 

The  English  literature  dealing  with  South  America 
naturally  resolves  itself  into  periods  which  correspond 
with  the  various  historical  phases  of  the  southern  con- 
tinent. Thus  the  first  works  dealing  with  the  Spanish 
South  American  colonies  were  descriptive  of  the  feats  of 
our  Elizabethan  sailors — that  is  to  say  when  the  soaring 
imagination  of  the  author  did  not  carry  him  inland,  to  de- 
pict fabulous  people,  customs,  natural  phenomena,  and 
such  mythical  spots  as  the  city  of  Manoa,  to  which  refer- 
ence has  already  been  made. 

With  the  rarest  exceptions,  even  among  Englishmen  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  faith,  the  only  English  who  caught 
a  glimpse  of  anything  beyond  the  coast-line  of  early  Span- 
ish South  America  were  prisoners.  It  was  very  seldom 
that  one  of  these  unfortunate  captives  ever  sailed  his  way 
back  over  the  broad  ocean  again.  If  he  did,  it  might  be 
taken  for  granted  that  the  scope  of  South  American 
vision  permitted  him  had  been  very  limited. 

If  the  chroniclers  who  dealt  with  Spanish  South  Amer- 
ica were  betrayed  into  numerous  errors,  they  had  suffi- 
cient excuse  for  their  mistakes.  Every  bit  of  such  in- 
formation as  they  gleaned  was  only  obtained  in  the  face 
of  the  active  opposition  of  the  Spaniards,  whose  policy 


SOUTH  AMERICA  IN  ENGLISH  PRINT         423 

it  was  to  prevent  any  knowledge  of  the  continent  from 
reaching  the  foreigner. 

In  the  present  day,  even  when  assisted  by  railways, 
guide-books,  and  personally  conducted  excursions,  the 
verdict  of  a  globe-trotter  on  a  foreign  country  is  not  in- 
frequently found  to  be  at  fault!  What  chance  had  the 
early  navigators,  then,  who,  when  approaching  a  port, 
were  welcomed  by  a  roundshot  instead  of  an  hotel  tout? 

Naturally,  this  system  of  withholding  information  ap- 
plied especially  to  maps  and  charts.  The  Spaniard  took 
care  to  cover  up  his  tracks,  on  sea  and  shore,  to  the  ut- 
most extent  that  lay  in  his  power.  If  a  Spanish  vessel 
gathered  some  useful  information  by  driving  her  nose 
on  to  a  hidden  rock,  the  chart  that  marked  the  lurking 
peril  was  held  secret  from  foreign  eyes — to  the  extent 
of  flinging  it,  weighted,  overboard,  should  the  ship  that 
carried  it  be  threatened  with  capture  by  an  English 
vessel.  At  the  same  time,  it  must  not  be  gathered  from 
all  this  that  the  Spanish  official  in  South  America  was 
necessarily  as  callous  as  this  procedure  would  make  him 
out.  He  was  merely  the  instrument  of  a  considered  and 
callous  policy.  He  himself  had  nothing  to  gain  if  a  for- 
eign vessel  foundered  on  that  rock,  concealed  by  nature 
and  the  Spaniard;  it  was  his  Government  alone  that 
supposed  it  gained  some  advantage  from  the  disaster. 

Be  that  how  it  may,  it  is  from  the  navigators  alone 
that  the  first  records  of  Spanish  South  America  are  ob- 
tainable, and  they  are  to  be  looked  for  in  such  famous 
collections  of  voyages  as  those  of  Hakluyt  and  Purchas. 
Previous  to  these,  no  writers  of  any  special  importance 
would  seem  to  have  concerned  themselves  with  the  do- 
ings of  their  fellow-countrymen  in  South  America. 
Nevertheless  Hakluyt  has  a  reference  to  the  effect  that: 
"That  learned  and  painefull  writer  Richard  Eden  in  a 
certain  Epistle  of  his  to  the  duke  of  Northumberland, 
before  a  worke  which  he  translated  out  of  Munster  in 
the  yeere  1553,  called  a  Treatise  of  new  India,  maketh 


424     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

mention  of  a  voyage  of  discoverie  undertaken  out  of  Eng- 
land by  Sir  Thomas  Pert  and  Sebastian  Cabota,  about 
the  8.  yere  of  King  Henry  the  eight  of  famous  memorie, 
imputing  the  overthrow  thereof  unto  the  cowardice  and 
want  of  stomack  of  the  said  Sir  Thomas  Pert." 

Of  these  two  famous  collectors,  Hakluyt  and  Purchas, 
there  is  no  doubt  that  the  work  of  Richard  Hakluyt  is  in- 
finitely the  more  valuable.  One  who  has  read  through 
the  books  of  that  splendid  and  staunch  old  clerical  travel- 
editor  will  have  won  for  himself  a  priceless  familiarity 
with  the  rovings  of  the  early  English  seamen,  and  conse- 
quently with  one  of  the  most  vital  pages  of  English  his- 
tory. The  collector  of  ' '  The  Principal  Navigations,  Voy- 
ages, Traffiques  and  Discoveries  of  the  English  Nation 
...  at  any  Time  within  the  Compasse  of  these  1600 
yeares"  was  a  loyal  Englishman  who  rejoiced  in  the  awak- 
ening of  his  country's  spirit,  and  who  demanded  in  the 
first  of  his  dedications  : 

''For,  which  the  kings  of  this  land  before  lier  Majesty, 
had  theyr  banners  ever  scene  in  the  Caspian  sea  1  Which 
of  them  hath  ever  dealt  with  the  Emperor  of  Persia,  as 
her  Majesty  hath  done,  and  obteined  for  her  merchants 
large  and  loving  privileges?  Who  ever  saw  before  this 
regiment,  an  English  Ligier  in  the  stately  porch  of  the 
Grand  Signor  at  Constantinople  ?  Who  ever  found  Eng- 
lish Consuls  and  Agents  at  Tripolis  in  Syria,  at  Aleppo, 
at  Babylon,  at  Balsara,  and  which  is  more,  who  ever  heard 
of  Englishmen  at  Goa  before  now?  What  English 
shippes  did  heeretofore  ever  anker  in  the  mighty  river  of 
Plate?  Passe  and  repasse  the  unpassable  (in  former 
opinion)  straight  of  Magellan,  range  along  the  coast  of 
Chili,  Peru,  and  all  the  backside  of  Nova  Hispania,  fur- 
ther than  any  Christian  ever  passed,  travers  the  mighty 
bredth  of  the  South  sea,  land  upon  the  Luzones  in  des- 
pight  of  the  enemy,  enter  into  alliance,  amity,  and  traf- 
fike  with  the  princes  of  the  Moluccas,  and  the  Isle  of  Java, 
double  the  famous  Cape  of  Bona  Speranza,  arrive  at  the 


SOUTH  AMERICA  IN  ENGLISH  PRINT         425 

Isle  of  Santa  Helena,  and  last  of  al  returne  home  most 
richly  laden  with  the  commodities  of  China,  as  the  sub- 
jects of  this  now  flourishing  Monarchy  have  done?" 

Richard  Hakluyt,  moreover,  gives  out  more  of  this 
sterling  enthusiasm,  which  is  worth  quoting  here.  Here 
is  his  ringing  summary  of  South  American  affairs: 
''Then  in  processe  of  yeeres  ariseth  the  first  English 
trade  to  Brasill,  the  first  passing  of  some  of  our  nation  in 
the  ordinarie  Spanish  fleetes  to  the  West  Indies,  and  the 
huge  Citie  of  Mexico  in  Nova  Hispania.  Then  immedi- 
atlye  ensue  3.  voyages  made  by  Mr.  John  Hawkins  now 
Knight,  then  Esquire,  to  Hispaniola,  and  the  gulfe  of 
Mexico:  upon  which  depende  sixe  verie  excellent  dis- 
courses of  our  men,  whereof  some  for  15.  or  16.  whole 
yeeres  inhabited  in  New  Spaine,  and  ranged  the  whole 
Countrie,  wherein  are  disclosed  the  cheefest  secretes  of 
the  west  India,  which  may  in  time  turne  to  our  no  smal 
advantage.  The  next  leaves  thou  turnest,'  do  yeelde  thee 
the  first  valiant  enterprise  of  Sir  Francis  Drake  upon 
Nombre  de  Dios,  the  mules  laden  with  treasure  which  he 
surprised,  and  the  house  called  the  Cruzes,  which  his  fire 
consumed:  and  therewith  is  joyned  an  action  more  ven- 
turous than  happie  of  John  Oxnam  of  Plimmouth  written, 
and  confessed  by  a  Spanyard,  which  with  his  companie 
passed  over  the  streight  Istme  of  Darien,  and  building 
certaine  pinnesses  on  the  west  shoare,  was  the  first  Eng- 
lishman that  entered  the  South  sea." 

One  more  extract  from  these  preliminaries  to  the  great- 
est work  on  travel  extant  will  suffice.  This  shows  Rich- 
ard Hakluyt,  parson  though  he  was,  in  a  mood  of  right- 
eous defiance.  For  he  is  concerned  here  with  the  Queen's 
enemies,  and  he  is,  first  and  foremost,  a  good  English- 
man.   As  such,  these  are  his  words : 

''Moreover,  because  since  our  warres  with  Spain,  by 
the  taking  of  their  ships,  and  sacking  of  their  townes  and 
cities,  most  of  all  their  secrets  of  the  West  Indies,  and 
every  part  thereof  are  fallen  into  our  peoples  hands 


426     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

(which  in  former  time  were  for  the  most  part  unknowen 
unto  us,)  I  have  used  the  uttermost  of  my  best  endeavour, 
to  get,  and  having  gotten,  to  translate  out  of  Spanish,  and 
here  in  this  present  volume  to  publish  such  secrets  of 
theirs,  as  may  any  way  availe  us  or  annoy  them,  if  they 
drive  and  urge  us  by  their  sullen  insolencies,  to  continue 
our  courses  of  hostilities  against  them,  and  shall  cease  to 
seeke  a  good  and  Christian  peace  upon  indifferent  and 
equal  conditions." 

Who  can  deny  that  this  is  a  revelation  of  an  admirable 
spirit  in  that  man  of  astonishing  industry,  Richard  Hak- 
luyt. 

Beyond  these,  there  are,  of  course,  such  separate  works 
as  that  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  with  its  tragic  associations, 
published  in  1596:  "The  Discovery  of  the  Large,  Rich, 
and  Beautiful  Empire  of  Guiana,  with  a  Relation  of  the 
Great  and  Golden  City  of  Manoa  ....  performed  in  the 
year  1595."  Of  special  interest,  too,  is  that  rare  book 
which  contains:  "The  Observations  of  Sir  Richard 
Hawkins,  Knight,  in  his  Voyage  into  the  South  Sea,  Anno 
Domini  1593,"  published  in  1622.  And  then,  if  you  de- 
sire to  follow  further  the  exploits  of  some  British  among 
a  host  of  cosmopolitan  colleagues  you  may  refer  to  Es- 
quemeling's  "Bucaniers  of  America,"  the  valuable  first 
edition  of  the  translation  of  which  was  printed  in  1684-5 
by  "William  Crooke,  at  the  Green  Dragon  without  Tem- 
ple Bar."  In  1671  one  of  the  first  serious  attempts  at 
the  general  history  of  South  America  was  made  by  John 
Ogilby,  and  the  result  is  a  handsome  royal  folio  volume, 
curiously  illustrated,  entitled  "America." 

The  works  of  Dampier  (1709),  Ringrose,  and  the  other 
bucaneer  authors  have  already  been  so  fully  dealt  with 
that  it  is  unnecessary  to  refer  to  them  again  here.  We 
may  jump  forward,  therefore,  to  the  details  of  some  more 
legitimate  cruising. 

In  1711  was  published  the  relation  of  Admiral  Sir  John 
Narbrough's  discoveries:     "An  account  of  several  late 


SOUTH  AMERICA  IN  ENGLISH  PRINT         427 

Voyages  and  Discoveries;  Sir  John  Narbrough's  Voy- 
age to  the  South  Sea  by  the  Command  of  King  Charles 
the  Second,  and  his  instructions  for  settling  a  Commerce 
in  those  parts,  with  a  Description  of  the  Capes,  Harbours, 
Rivers,  Customs  of  the  Inhabitants  and  commodities  in 
which  they  trade, ' '  etc. 

Even  at  this  period  the  knowledge  of  the  interior  of  the 
continent  was  extraordinarily  scanty.  It  is  not  neces- 
sary to  turn  back  the  pages  of  history  as  far  as  Sir 
John  Mandeville  to  obtain  some  quaint  description  of 
men,  beasts,  and  things.  Perhaps  one  of  the  few  re- 
proaches which  can  be  held  against  the  memory  of  that 
most  admirable  and  chivalrous  person.  Sir  Walter  Ral- 
eigh, is  that  he  allowed  the  glowing  Guianas  to  set  his 
imagination  on  fire,  thus  providing  a  somewhat  reckless 
example  in  the  drawing  of  the  long  bow  on  the  Orinoco ! 
Indeed,  Raleigh's  confident  reports  of  the  nation  of  the 
Ewaipanoma — the  nation  that  had  their  eyes  in  their 
shoulders,  their  mouths  in  the  middle  of  the  breasts,  and 
a  "long  traine  of  haire"  sprouting  backwards  from  their 
shoulders — prepares  his  readers  for  his  confession  of 
faith  in  Mandeville:  ''whose  reports  were  holden  for 
fables  many  yeeres,  and  yet  since  the  East  Indies  were 
discovered,  we  find  his  relations  true  of  such  things  as 
heretofore  were  held  incredible." 

As  late  as  the  eighteenth  century  the  ordinary  geo- 
graphical work  published  in  England  on  South  America 
was  notable  quite  as  much  for  the  curious  quality  of  its 
statements  as  for  what  it  left  unsaid !  To  take  a  single 
example  quite  at  haphazard  out  of  the  great  number 
available,  ''Gordon's  Geographical  Grammar,"  pub- 
lished in  1702.  Dedicated  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, it  was  an  eminently  respectable  and  weighty  work, 
this — "Comprehending  a  general  view  of  the  terraque- 
ous globe  .  .  .  with  a  transient  survey  of  the  surface 
of  the  earthly  ball  .  .  .  and  a  clear  and  pleasant  pros- 
pect of  all  remarkable  countries.  ..." 


428      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

But  even  Gordon  found  it  a  difficult  matter  to  peer 
through  the  veil  which  the  Iberians  had  drawn  across 
South  America.  Even  of  "Terra  Firma,"  which  com- 
prised the  northern  part  of  the  continent  including  the 
Guianas,  there  is  little  to  be  said.  And  such  information 
as  is  volunteered  is  strikingly  vague.  Now  and  again 
we  seem  to  be  drawn  halfway  into  the  editor's  confidence. 
We  are  told  for  instance  that :  "in  one  of  the  Branches  of 
Orenoque  River,  in  such  a  hideous  Cataract,  that  the 
water  falling  down,  makes  as  loud  a  noise  as  if  a  thousand 
Bells  were  knock 'd  one  against  another." 

Now  supposing  that  you  had  lived  in  the  year  1702  and 
had  wished  to  see  and  hear  for  yourself  this  hideous  cat- 
aract with  its  thousand  bells — well,  there  was  the  whole 
of  the  great  Orinoco  system  to  choose  from,  and  you 
might  have  spent  many  years  paddling  to  and  fro  before 
you  heard  even  so  much  as  a  single  tinkle!  All  this  is 
subject  to  the  further  supposition  that  you  had  not  made 
the  discovery  that  the  sentence  had  been  lifted  from  Ral- 
eigh's description  of  his  sixteenth  century  Orinoco  trav- 
els !  And  the  neighborhood  of  another  dreadful  cataract 
— on  the  Amazon  this  time — must  have  been  still  harder 
to  discover.  For  the  only  clue  to  its  identification  was 
that  the  canoes  of  the  daring  natives,  when  they  fell  down 
it,  were  accustomed  to  "turn  topsie-turvy  many  times." 

Forsaking  this  topic  of  "rarities"  for  that  of  "man- 
ners," we  find  that  the  information  is  correspondingly 
slender.  For  instance,  after  a  curt  statement  that  the 
Guiana  cannibals  are  hunters,  and  walk  naked  above  their 
middles,  we  are  torn  away  from  the  neighborhood  of 
these  interesting  folk — to  whom  we  have  had  time 
scarcely  even  to  nod — with  the  following  parting  observa- 
tion: 

"The  eating  of  human  Flesh  (especially  that  of  van- 
quished Enemies)  is  so  relishing  to  the  pallate  of  those 
savages,  that  two  Nations  of  them  by  mutual  Devouring 
are  now  reduc'd  to  two  Handfuls  of  Men." 


SOUTH  AMERICA  IN  ENGLISH  PRINT         429 

Mr.  Gordon  has  clearly  missed  an  opportunity  here  of 
bringing  his  metaphor  still  more  into  line  with  the  tastes 
of  his  enthusiastic  cannibals,  which  he  might  so  easily 
have  effected  by  the  substitution  of  Mouthfuls  for  Hand- 
fuls!  ' 

The  fact  is  that,  thanks  to  the  Iberian  obstructive  meth- 
ods, Mr.  Gordon  knew  very  little  about  South  America. 
But  he  is  at  least  frankly  conscious  of  his  limitations,  for 
that  which  he  says  of  the  Amazon  government  applies  to 
the  rest:  *'A  further  enquiry  into  the  same,  must  be  re- 
ferred to  the  better  Discovery  of  future  Ages." 

We  have  certainly  no  reason  to  complain  of  this  when 
we  consider  the  occasional  European  ignorance  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  as  displayed,  for  instance,  by  the 
French  map-maker,  referred  to  by  Charles  Kingsley  in 
**Hereward  the  Wake,"  who  left  all  the  Scottish  country 
to  the  north  of  the  Tay  a  blank,  with  the  inscription: 
''Terre  inculte  et  sauvage,  habit ee  par  les  Highlanders." 

In  later  words  such  as  Guthrie's  ''Geography  of  1788," 
the  influence  of  a  vastly  increased  number  of  mariners 
and  travelers  on  the  South  American  coasts  is  already 
evident.  Even  so,  the  greater  part  of  the  information  is 
sketchy  and  vague  to  a  degree. 

It  is  when  we  arrive  at  the  problem  of  anthropology 
and  natural  history  that  the  weak  spots  even  in  this  more 
recent  geographer's  armor  become  most  apparent.  Thus 
we  are  told  of  the  Moon-eyed  Indians,  a  fair-skinned  race, 
so  called  from  the  weakness  of  their  blue  eyes  that,  un- 
able to  bear  the  rays  of  the  sun,  served  them  best  by 
moonlight !  Among  the  matters  of  historical  interest  we 
are  served  up  with  the  voluptuous  and  picturesque  asser- 
tion that  the  inhabitants  of  Lima  in  order  to  provide  a 
really  efficient  welcome  for  a  certain  viceroy  had  the 
streets  paved  with  silver  for  his  entry,  to  the  tune  of  a 
cool  seventeen  million  pounds  sterling !  How  deeply  the 
contemporary  readers  must  have  deplored  the  extinction 
of  bucaneering  proper ! 


430      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

But  the  most  extraordinary  blend  of  truth  and  imag- 
ination here  is  revealed  in  the  description  of  the  sloth. 
So  quaint  a  piece  of  prose  is  this  that  I  will  give  it  in 
full.  Guthrie  dilates  with  much  reason  on  the  sloth's 
tardy  movements : 

"When  he  moves,  every  effort  is  attended  with  such  a 
plaintive,  and  at  the  same  time,  so  disagreeable  a  cry,  as 
at  once  produces  pity  and  disgust.  In  this  cry  consists 
the  whole  defense  of  this  wretched  animal.  For  on  the 
first  hostile  approach  it  is  natural  for  him  to  be  in  motion, 
which  is  always  accompanied  with  disgustful  howling,  so 
that  his  pursuer  flies  much  more  speedily  in  his  turn,  to 
be  beyond  the  reach  of  this  horrid  noise.  When  this  ani- 
mal finds  no  wild  fruits  on  the  ground,  he  looks  out  with 
a  great  deal  of  pains  for  a  tree  well  loaded,  which  he 
ascends  with  a  world  of  uneasiness,  moving,  and  crying, 
and  stopping  by  turns.  At  length,  having  mounted,  he 
plucks  off  all  the  fruit,  and  throws  it  on  the  ground,  to 
save  himself  such  another  troublesome  journey;  and 
rather  than  be  fatigued  with  coming  down  the  tree,  he 
gathers  himself  in  a  bunch,  and  with  a  shriek  drops  to 
the  ground." 

Surely  the  pathos  of  the  last  is  only  equaled  by  the  ex- 
traordinary vision  conjured  up  of  the  flight  from  each 
other  at  their  respective  speeds  of  the  sloth's  enemy  and 
of  the  sloth! 

Of  course  I  do  not  quote  such  fragments  as  these  on 
account  of  their  intrinsic  interest  or  rarity.  They  are 
merely  intended  to  exemplify  the  ordinary  kind  of  in- 
formation doled  out  at  these  periods  to  the  wondering 
public,  and  for  this  purpose  I  have  merely  taken  up  from 
my  library  such  books  as  came  first  to  hand. 

Other  works,  such  as  ''The  Universe  Displayed  .  .  ." 
published  in  1768,  seem  to  have  been  given  out  in  a  spirit 
of  self-complacency  such  as  that  which  promised  for  this 
that  it  would  be  ''one  of  the  most  beautiful  as  well  as  most 
entertaining  works  that  has  yet  been  published. ' ' 


SOUTH  AMERICA  IN  ENGLISH  PRINT         431 

The  form  in  which  this  large  claim  materialized  itself 
will  be  made  clear  to  the  reader  by  the  following  extract 
from  the  preface:  '*We  shall  give  our  Account  in  the 
Way  of  a  Dialogue  between  Sophron,  a  studious  Youth, 
Sophia,  his  sister,  fond  of  reading  and  improving  her 
Mind,  and  Mr.  Worthy,  an  intimate  Friend  of  the  Fam- 
ily, who  had  traveled  over  most  Parts  of  the  World,  and 
is  fond  of  improving  the  Minds  of  Sophron  and  his  Sister, 
and  of  informing  them  of  what  he  has  seen  or  heard  of 
most  remarkable  in  his  Travels." 

The  pictorial  illustrations  of  many  of  these  seventeenth- 
and  eighteenth-century  volumes  are  sufficiently  instruct- 
ive in  themselves.  This,  moreover,  does  not  apply  only 
to  the  quaintly  conceived  beasts,  birds,  reptiles,  and  fishes 
— grotesque  and  dreamlike  creatures  these  appear  to  the 
modern  eye.  The  conception  of  the  South  American  In- 
dian was  equally  bizarre,  although  here  and  there  the  ex- 
aggeration leaned  to  the  euphemistic  side.  Those  worthy 
artists  who  drew  to  order  in  London  seemed  extraordina- 
rily loth  to  depict  a  South  American  native  who  was  not 
possessed  of  a  stately,  noble,  and  handsome  appearance. 

In  this  it  must  be  admitted  that  they  did  not  go  to 
the  lengths  to  which  their  French  confreres  proceeded. 
These,  when  imagining  an  Inca  lady,  had  a  weakness  for 
depicting  a  demoiselle  of  Versailles — features,  manner- 
isms, and  smile — clothed  in  classic  draperies.  Indeed, 
generally  speaking,  the  Grecian  model  served  these  Med- 
iterranean-minded souls  for  all  the  aborigines  of  the 
Southern  continent,  irrespective  of  type  and  geography ! 
At  the  same  time  there  is  no  doubt  but  that  many  Eng- 
lish illustrations  of  the  period  were  somewhat  unduly  in- 
fluenced by  such  accounts  as  that  of  Raleigh's  description 
of  the  wife  of  an  Orinoco  Cacique : 

'  *  In  all  my  life  I  have  seldome  seene  a  better  favoured 
woman :  shee  was  of  good  stature,  with  blacke  eyes,  fat  of 
body,  of  an  excellent  countenance,  her  haire  almost  as 
long  as  her  selfe,  tied  up  againe  in  pretie  knots,  and  it 


432      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

seemed  shee  stood  not  in  that  awe  of  her  husband,  as  the 
rest,  for  shee  spake  and  discoursed,  and  dranke  among 
the  gentlemen  and  Captaines,  and  was  very  pleasant, 
knowing  her  owne  comelinesse,  and  taking  great  pride 
therein.  I  have  seene  a  Lady  in  England  so  like  to  her, 
as  but  for  the  difference  of  colour,  I  would  have  sworne 
might  have  been  the  same." 

This  description  of  Raleigh's,  of  course,  was  written 
from  memory — and  from  the  memory  of  a  poetic  temper- 
ament. Had  he  met  the  Guiana  lady  in  the  flesh  in  the 
neighborhood  of  St.  James  I  feel  convinced  that  some  of 
Raleigh's  reminiscences  would  have  suffered  an  abrupt 
shattering.  So  much  so  that  I  doubt  whether  his  cloak 
would  have  been  at  her  service  even  on  the  muddiest 
day! 

After  this  we  may  proceed  to  enumerate  a  few  works, 
more  or  less  in  chronological  order. 

In  1726  Charles  Brockwell  produced  a  work,  which  does 
not  seem  to  have  affected  later  historians  to  any  appreci- 
able extent :  ' '  The  Natural  and  Political  History  of  Por- 
tugal ...  to  which  is  added  the  History  of  Brazil  and 
all  other  Dominions  subject  to  the  Crown  of  Portugal," 
etc. 

In  1774  appeared  a  volume — I  imagine  not  of  the  first 
edition — by  "Captain  R.  Boyle,"  entitled,  "The  voyages 
and  adventures  of  Captain  Robert  Boyle."  Now  the  ad- 
ventures of  this  Captain  Robert  Boyle  were  acute  and 
varied,  and  he  appears  to  have  come  into  contact  with 
Dampier,  and  with  other  famous  personalities  of  the  age. 
I  often  used  to  wonder  how  it  was  that  neither  Dampier 
nor  any  one  else  referred  to  this  very  notable  personality 
in  return,  since  Boyle  was  clearly  not  the  sort  of  man  to 
be  overlooked — until  it  was  put  to  me — by  Mr.  Francis 
Edwards — that  these  cleverly  constructed  adventures 
were  apocrj^Dhal.  The  work,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  is 
ascribed  to  W.  R.  Chetwood,  although  there  are  some  who 
hold  that  it  is  from  the  pen  of  Benjamin  Victor. 


H 


SOUTH   AMERICAN   CATTLE 


SOITH   AMERICAN   OXEN 


SOUTH  AMERICA  IN  ENGLISH  PRINT         433 

Anson's  voyage  round  the  world  has  been  described  by- 
Richard  Walters  in  1748.  Another  volume  was  devoted 
to  this  by  John  Phillips  in  1744 ;  a  third  was  given  out  by 
Pascoe  Thomas  in  1745,  while  '*A  Midshipman  on  board 
the  Centurion"  published  yet  another  account  in  1767. 

The  ill-fated  British  expedition  to  Carthagena,  which 
was  to  have  struck  Spanish  America  from  the  east,  while 
Anson  was  playing  his  part  in  the  west,  is  described  in 
"Authentic  Papers  relating  to  the  Expeditions  against 
Carthagena,  being  the  Resolutions  of  the  Councils  of 
War,  both  of  Sea  and  Land  officers"  etc.  This  is  an 
octavo  volume,  published  in  1745. 

It  should  be  remarked,  too,  that  Smollett,  the  novelist, 
accompanied  the  British  forces  to  Carthagena,  and  pub- 
lished an  account  of  the  expedition. 

Various  narratives  concerning  the  wreck  of  H.M.S. 
Wager  were  published  about  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  among  them  one  by  Isaac  Morris,  midshipman: 
'^Narrative  of  the  Dangers  and  Distresses  which  befel 
Isaac  Morris  and  Seven  of  the  Crew  of  the  Wager  .  .  . 
left  on  an  uninhabited  part  of  Patagonia."  (1747.)  An- 
other account  was  published  by  Alexander  Campbell  about 
the  same  time. 

In  1768  Commodore  the  Hon.  John  Byron  gave  an  "Ac- 
count of  the  Great  Distresses  suffered  by  Himself  and 
Companions  on  the  Coast  of  Patagonia,  1740,  with  De- 
scription of  St.  Jago  de  Chili  and  its  inhabitants,  also 
relation  of  the  Loss  of  the  Wager/'  one  of  Anson's 
squadron.  This,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  followed  the  "Voy- 
age round  the  World  in  H.M.S.  Dolphin,  commanded  by 
Commodore  Byron,  with  a  Minute  description  of  the 
Streights  of  Magellan  and  the  Patagonians,  etc.,"  which 
had  been  published  in  the  previous  year  (1767)  by  "An 
officer  on  board  the  said  ship." 

In  1771,  it  should  be  said,  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson  gave 
out  his  "Thoughts  on  the  late  Transactions  respecting 
Falkland  Islands" — thoughts  which — I  admit  the  failure 


434      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

with  shame — I  have  never  perused,  taking  it  for  granted 
that  their  sententiousness  was  no  less  weighty  than  that 
which  hung  about  most  of  the  thoughts  of  the  worthy 
and  tremendous  doctor!  The  tenor  of  Johnson's 
thoughts  seem  to  have  been  against  the  retention  of  the 
islands  as  a  British  settlement. 

In  1774,  the  Jesuit  Missionary  Thomas  Falkner  pro- 
duced from  his  very  varied  experiences  a  slim  and  ad- 
mirably printed  quarto  volume:  "A  Description  of  Pat- 
agonia and  the  adjoining  Parts  of  South  America:  Re- 
ligion, Government,  Customs  and  Language  of  the  In- 
habitants, and  some  Particulars  of  the  Falkland  Islands." 
Falkner 's  work,  dealing  with  the  provinces  of  the  stalwart 
and  warlike  Indians,  outside  the  zone  of  the  contempo- 
rary Spanish  influence,  is  peculiarly  interesting.  He  con- 
tributes, moreover,  some  valuable  ethnological  matter  in 
his  description  of  the  eighteenth  century  Nomad  Indians 
of  the  Pampa,  whose  ceramic  remains  and  stone  weapons 
are  still  found  in  the  sand  and  along  the  banks  of  the 
streams  north  and  south  of  the  Tandil  Range.  They  were 
the  predecessors  of  the  ''Pampa"  Indians  of  modern 
times,  and  were  undoubtedly  the  link  uniting  the  Pehuel- 
ches  and  Patagonians  to  the  now  extinct  Querandies  and 
Charruas  of  the  river  Plate  estuary.  The  Spanish  au- 
thorities appear  to  have  regarded  Falkner 's  missionary 
efforts  with  a  certain  amount  of  suspicion,  although, 
speaking  from  memory,  I  think  that  no  hint  of  this  ap- 
pears in  his  book. 

An  important  historical  work  is  that  of  Doctor  AVilliam 
Robertson's,  "The  History  of  South  America"  (of  which 
the  author's  copy,  second  edition,  is  dated  1778).  This  is 
a  notable  milestone  in  the  historical  road  of  South  Ameri- 
can literature,  and  even  at  the  present  time  it  may  still 
serve  in  many  respects  as  a  standard  work. 

In  1805  appeared,  edited  by  Captain  Joseph  Skinner,  an 
interesting  book,  "The  Present  State  of  Peru,"  in  which 
were  included  twenty  very  curiously  colored  illustrations, 


SOUTH  AMERICA  IN  ENGLISH  PRINT         435 

mostly  concerned  with  the  contemporary  Peruvian  cos- 
tume. 

The  manner  in  which  this  pubHcation  came  to  see  the 
light  is  in  itself  quite  out  of  the  ordinary.  On  the  capture 
of  the  Spanish  galleon  Santiago  bound  from  Lima  to 
Cadiz,  in  1793,  a  number  of  copies  of  a  Peruvian  maga- 
zine— the  existence  of  which  had  not  been  suspected  until 
then — were  discovered.  Much  of  this  magazine  matter, 
translated  and  commented  upon,  made  up  the  ''Present 
State  of  Peru,"  and  thus  in  this  rather  strange  fashion 
a  good  deal  of  light  was  thrown  on  a  colony,  the  affairs  of 
which  the  Spaniards  were  jealously  endeavoring  to  keep 
concealed  from  Europe  and  North  America. 

A  somewhat  remarkable  publication  of  this  period  is 
Gregory's  "Journal  of  a  Captured  Missionary,"  which 
takes  in  the  adventures  of  the  missionaries  of  the  ship 
Duff  in  the  years  1798  and  1799.  These  worthy  folk, 
when  on  their  way  to  the  South  Sea  Islands,  were  cap- 
tured by  French  privateers  in  the  neighborhood  of  Rio. 
Landed  in  Montevideo,  they  were  brought  into  contact 
with  the  mutineers  of  the  Lady  Shore,  who,  convicts  bound 
for  Botany  Bay,  had  overcome  their  guards  and  brought 
their  vessel  into  Montevideo.  Apart  from  the  interest 
of  the  adventures  it  relates,  this  book  is  notable  for  the 
unusual  self-complacency  of  its  tone. 

A  second  volume  on  this  subject  was  published  in  1809, 
"Some  interesting  particulars  of  the  second  voyage  made 
by  the  Missionary  ship,  the  Duff.'''' 

Toward  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  (the  edition 
which  I  have  come  across,  not  the  first,  is  dated  179-1-)  was 
published  an  octavo  volume,  the  lengthy  title  of  which 
may  be  given  nearly  in  full,  since  in  itself  it  is  not  without 
its  historical  instruction:  "Unfortunate  Englishmen,  or 
a  faithful  Narrative  of  the  Distresses  and  Adventures  of 
John  Cockburn,  and  five  other  Mariners  .  .  .  who  was 
taken  by  a  Spanish  Guarda  Costa,  in  the  John  and  Ann, 
Capt.  Burt,  and  set  on  shore,  naked  and  wounded,  at  Porto 


436     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

Cavallo,  containing  a  Journey  over  Land  from  the  Gulph 
of  Honduras  to  the  Great  South  Sea ;  wherein  are  many 
new  and  useful  Discoveries.  ..." 

Between  1803  and  1806  was  published  an  important 
contribution  to  the  literature  of  southern  navigation  in 
Admiral  James  Burney's  "Chronological  History  of 
Voyages  and  Discovery  in  the  South  Sea  or  Pacific 
Ocean." 

Two  very  curious  and  mystifying  volumes  are  those 
published  by  John  Davie  in  1805  and  1819  respectively: 
''Letters  from  Paraguay,  Buenos  Aires,  Montevideo," 
and  ''Letters  from  Buenos  Aires  and  Montevideo." 

In  the  advertisement  of  the  first  volume  the  author  is 
described  as  "a  gentleman  of  liberal  education  and  con- 
siderable property,  having  been  disappointed  of  his  hopes 
of  happiness  with  a  beloved  female,  to  relieve  the  distress 
of  his  mind  resolved  to  travel." 

John  Davie  was  on  his  way  from  New  York  to  Aus- 
tralia, when  a  storm  forced  the  captain  of  his  vessel  to 
put  in  to  Buenos  Aires  for  repairs.  There,  Davie  him- 
self, going  ashore,  was  seized  by  a  violent  attack  of  fever. 
The  ship  in  which  he  was  a  passenger  had  to  proceed  on 
its  way,  and  Davie  was  left  to  recover  in  the  exceedingly 
good  care  of  the  fathers  of  the  Convent  of  St.  Dominic. 
When  quite  restored  to  health  he  took  the  dress  of  a  no- 
vitiate, and  was  afterwards  known  among  the  Dominicans 
as  Father  Mathias.  A  curious  circumstance  is  that,  al- 
though from  the  moment  of  his  first  entrance  into  the 
convent  it  had  been  taken  for  granted  that  he  was  a  Ro- 
man Catholic,  Davie  never  seems  to  have  formally  em- 
braced that  faith ! 

Attending  a  superior,  Father  Hernandez,  to  whom  he 
became  devotedly  attached,  Davis  traveled  to  some  of 
the  inland  missions  of  the  Uruguay  River,  and  testified 
to  the  manner  in  which  the  Spanish  soldiers  interfered 
with  the  work  of  the  mission.  In  the  end  the  fierce  Char- 
rua  Indians  rose  against  the  military,  and  Davie  was 


SOUTH  AMERICA  IN  ENGLISH  PRINT         437 

present  at  a  dreadful  massacre.  He  himself,  as  a  sup- 
posed Dominican,  was  shielded  from  the  wrath  of  the 
victorious  Indians. 

His  adventures  were  of  the  strangest,  and  he  was  as- 
siduous in  his  observations,  which,  as  the  concluding 
words  of  the  advertisement  explain:  "he  took  every  op- 
portunity of  communicating  to  his  friend  in  this  country 
through  his  agent  at  New  York  by  means  of  the  American 
captains  trading  to  South  America.  After  his  return  to 
Buenos  Aires,  it  is  certain  that  he  went  to  Conception,  in 
Chile,  as  he  was  last  heard  of  from  that  place,  in  the  year 
1803;  but  whether  he  lost  his  life  in  any  insurrection  of 
the  natives,  or  was  imprisoned  by  the  government  in  con- 
sequence of  his  correspondence  being  detected,  is  un- 
known. ' ' 

Decidedly  John  Davie  was  a  romantic  person,  both  in 
his  personality  and  prose.  His  book  tends  to  leave  the 
reader  in  a  rather  doubtful  frame  of  mind.  He  has  no 
particular  reason  to  suppose  that  events  did  not  occur  as 
they  are  set  down  in  Davie's  pages,  yet  he  cannot  refrain 
from  a  certain  wonder,  for  all  that ! 

The  first  important  flood  of  English  literature  at  first 
hand  on  the  Spanish  South  American  dominions,  was  let 
loose  on  the  occasion  of  the  British  expedition  to  the  river 
Plate.  A  volume  which  makes  clear  some  of  the  reasons 
of  the  enterprise  is  James  Biggs 's  "History  of  Don  Fran- 
cisco Miranda's  Attempt  to  effect  a  Revolution  in  South 
America,  in  a  series  of  Letters;  to  which  are  annexed 
sketches  of  the  Life  of  Miranda  and  geographical  Notices 
of  Caraccas." 

Of  the  books  on  the  subject  which  I  have  had  the  occa- 
sion to  possess  or  to  see,  the  following  would  seem  the 
most  notable : 

One  of  the  first  that  apparently  saw  the  light  was  a 
pamphlet,  anonymous  and  undoubtedly  inspired,  in  de- 
fense of  the  discredited  General  Whitelocke,  This,  enti- 
tled "Truth  and  Wisdom  versus  Calumny  and  Folly,"  ap- 


438      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

peared  in  1807.  It  is,  of  course,  a  piece  of  special  plead- 
ing, and  is  a  fairly  worthless  production. 

It  was  owing  to  these  expeditions,  too,  that  Samuel 
Hull  Wilcocke  published  in  1807  his  "History  of  the  Vice- 
royalty  of  Buenos  Aires." 

The  next  work  in  seniority  was  a  publication  of  quite 
a  different  order.  This,  published  in  1808,  was  "Notes 
on  the  Vice-royalty  of  La  Plata,  by  a  gentleman  recently 
returned  from  it."  This  is  undoubtedly  the  work  of  a 
joyous  youth,  a  connoisseur  of  dames,  in  whose  breast 
the  disaster  must  have  been  to  a  certain  extent  compen- 
sated by  the  fairness  of  the  Montevidean  ladies. 

I  have  referred  to  this  author  in  a  previous  work,  but 
he  is  not  to  be  passed  by  here.  He  gives  a  sufficiently 
graphic  picture  of  the  contemporary  life  of  Montevideo, 
and  renders  to  the  Oriental  ladies  all  the  praise  that 
should  be  theirs  by  right.  But  occasionally,  it  seems, 
there  was  a  fly  in  the  ointment.    In  his  words : 

"Their  fine  figures  and  graceful  carriage  they  retain, 
even  after  their  other  charms  are  fled.  From  this  cir- 
cumstance, one  is  sometimes  betrayed  into  unpleasant  and 
ludicrous  mistakes.  After  following  through  several 
streets  a  pretty  figure  with  a  well-turned  ankle  and  a 
brisk  and  airy  step,  by  a  sudden  inclination  of  the  head 
you  discern  with  mortification  and  horror,  instead  of  the 
lovely  features  of  youth  and  beauty  which  your  fancy 
had  pictured,  the  dusky  visage  of  a  lean  and  wrinkled 
hag.  ..." 

Obviously  the  writer  suffered  from  the  impetuosity  of 
youth.  But,  as  I  have  remarked  before,  how  unfair  is  the 
irritability  of  the  last  sentence!  Why  should  a  respect- 
able elderly  lady  be  termed  a  lean  and  wrinkled  hag  just 
because  her  gait  was  daughter  to  her  features'?  Picture 
the  scene!  Imagine  the  dusty  and  ill-paved  streets  of 
the  town,  along  which  lumber  the  heavy  chariots  of 
the  age,  holding  the  fair  forms  of  the  Montevidean  female 
youth,  who  have  already  turned  the  head  of  the  fair- 


SOUTH  AMERICA  IN  ENGLISH  PRINT         439 

haired,  fresh-colored,  uniformed  stranger.  And  then, 
alone  and  on  foot,  appears  the  lady — the  back  of  the  lady 
— of  anachronistic  properties.  With  his  brain  in  a  whirl 
the  stranger  follows  the  fascinating  ankles.  Past  street 
corner  after  street  corner,  each  marked  by  its  protecting 
cannon  stuck  in  the  soil,  go  the  pair  in  the  same  order, 
the  northern  youth  becoming  more  and  more  inflamed  as 
he  is  drawn  farther  from  the  center  of  the  town.  At  last 
the  lady  turns  her  head — and  the  world  turns  blank  at  the 
same  time!  Then  follows  the  epithet!  You  will  agree 
that  he  was  well  served.  So  much  for  the  gentleman  re- 
cently returned  from  the  river  Plate ! 

A  book  which  deals  more  soberly  with  this  important 
subject,  and  which  is  one  of  the  most  reliable  of  all  in  its 
details,  is  the  "Authentic  Narrative  of  .  .  .  the  Expedi- 
tion under  Gen.  Crawford  .  .  .  with  .  .  .  the  operations 
under  Gen.  Whitelocke.  By  an  officer  of  the  expedition." 
This  was  published  in  1808. 

Major  Alexander  Gillespie's  ''Gleanings  and  Remarks 
...  at  Buenos  Aires"  (1819)  supply  one  of  the  serious 
historical  sides  to  this  tragic  expedition. 

Another  important  publication  is  one  by  Lieutenant 
Robert  Fernyhough  published  in  1829:  ''Military  Me- 
moirs of  Four  Brothers  in  the  New  World."  This  sup- 
plies an  excellent  description  of  the  Beresford  Conquest 
and  capitalization,  and  of  the  adventures  of  the  British 
prisoners  when  they  were  interned  in  the  Condor  Valley 
in  Cordoba. 

Two  further  notable  books  on  the  subject  are,  "The 
Journal  of  a  Soldier  of  the  Seventy-first  Regiment  of 
Highland  Light  Infantry,"  (1822),  which  throws  some 
interesting  sidelights  on  the  occurrences,  and  the  "Me- 
moirs of  a  Serjeant  of  the  5th  Regt.  of  Foot,"  a  small 
undated  book,  bearing  Masonic  emblems  on  its  frontis- 
piece, which  gives  a  most  spirited  account  of  the  opera- 
tions. 

Some  further  relations  of  the  ill-fated  expedition  are 


440     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

given  in  Sir  George  Mouat  Keith's  Voyage  to  South 
America,  and  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  in  H.M's  Brig, 
Protector,  published  in  1819. 

Having  now  finished  with  the  literature  concerning  this 
expedition  we  must  hark  back  a  few  years  to  1808  when  a 
very  important  work:  "The  Geographical,  Natural  and 
Civil  History  of  Chili,"  written  by  the  Abbe  Don  J.  Ig- 
natius Molina,  was  translated  into  English  by  "An  Amer- 
ican Gentleman,"  who  was  in  reality  no  less  a  personage 
than  Washington  Irving. 

The  accuracy  of  a  certain  number  of  Molina 's  observa- 
tions on  natural  history  have  been  occasionally  challenged 
by  later  naturalists ;  but  the  work  is  nevertheless  a  most 
invaluable  one,  and  the  scope  of  its  information  very  wide. 
As  an  appendix  the  work  contains  notes  on  Alonzo  de 
Ercilla's  famous  poem,  the  Araucana,  "with  copious 
translations  from  that  poem,  by  William  Hayley,  Esq., 
and  theKev.  H.  Boyd." 

There  is  one  rather  curious  feature  connected  with  the 
English  literature  on  South  America  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  The  authors  of  the  books  which  saw  the  light 
during  this  period  belonged  to  various  walks  in  life. 
There  were  diplomats  such  as  Parish  and  Ousely;  there 
were  soldiers  such  as  Head ;  sailors  such  as  Hall,  Smythe, 
Lowe,  and  a  score  of  others.  Naturalists,  headed  hy  Dar- 
win, Waterton,  Bates  and  Wallace,  have  given  us  many 
books;  and  the  volumes  for  which  the  clergy  have  been 
responsible  are  numerous  enough,  including  those  of 
Walsh,  Murray,  and  a  number  of  chaplains  and  mission- 
aries. Estancieros  such  as  Latham,  Hadfield,  and — to 
come  to  the  present  day — Herbert  Gibson,  have  given  out 
valuable  work.  And  then  there  have  been  the  impres- 
sions of  literary  travelers  such  as  Mansfield  and  Hinch- 
liff  to  light  up  for  the  benefit  of  the  general  public  the 
scenes  through  which  they  passed,  as  well  as  the  solid 
work  of  journalists  and  newspaper  proprietors  such  as 
Mulhall.     It  is  surely  unnecessary  to  extend  this  cate- 


SOUTH  AMERICA  IN  ENGLISH  PRINT         441 

gory  further,  else  poet-historians  like  Robert  Southey, 
and  the  great  North  American  writer,  Prescott,  might  be 
included. 

So  much  for  the  professions  and  occupations  of  the 
great  majority  of  the  British  authors  of  the  nineteenth 
century  who  dealt  with  South  America.  But  what  of  the 
men  who  went  out  to  that  continent  to  occupy  themselves 
in  purely  commercial  pursuits — the  great  army  of  busi- 
ness men  who  outnumbered  all  these  others  put  together 
very  many  times  over  ?  Their  voices  have  been  strangely 
silent,  so  far  as  print  is  concerned. 

Yet  their  occupations  have  been  varied  enough.  The 
man  who  has  banked  or  insured  in  one  of  the  great  capi- 
tals of  the  continent ;  the  shipper  of  timber,  cereals,  and 
chilled  meat;  the  dealer  in  hides,  horns,  and  fleeces;  the 
importers  of  agricultural  and  mining  machinery,  and,  in 
fact,  all  those  who  make  up  the  company  of  buyers 
and  sellers,  canvassers,  creditors,  and  debtors — the  ex- 
periences of  very  many  of  this  great  host  must  have 
been  interesting  enough  to  afford  most  instructive  pe- 
rusal. 

In  almost  every  case  they  remain  to  be  written!  The 
average  British  business  man  of  South  America  is  the 
very  last  person  who  can  be  accused  of  having  rushed  into 
print.  He  has  doubtless  found  a  more  profitable  use  for 
his  pen.  A  receipt  is  as  easy  to  write  as  an  essay;  but 
he  who  writes  many  essays  will  write  few  receipts ! 

It  was  in  the  1820 's  that  South  America  first  came 
within  the  field  of  the  travel-book  proper.  Curiously 
enough  nearly  every  one  of  these  works  is  concerned  with 
the  journey  from  the  Atlantic  Ocean  to  the  Pacific,  or 
vice  versa,  and  the  passage  of  the  Andes  which  was  in- 
volved. 

Thus  in  1822  was  published  "The  Narrative  of  a  Jour- 
ney from  Santiago  de  Chile  to  Buenos  Aires ' '  by  Lieuten- 
ant Edward  Hibbert.  This  was  rapidly  followed  by  sim- 
ilar publications  by  Gilbert  Farquhar  Mathison  (1825), 


442     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

Alexander  Caldcleugh  (1825),  John  Miers  (1826),  Cap- 
tain Andrews  (1827),  Captain — afterwards  Sir — Francis 
Head  (1828),  Lieut.  Charles  Brand  (1828).  All  these 
books  are  descriptive  of  the  long  posting  journey  through 
the  dust  or  mud  of  the  Argentine  plains — where  the  In- 
dian peril  frequently  lurked — and  the  strenuous  and 
often  dangerous  passage  of  the  Andine  peaks. 

Of  these  books,  mostly  very  slender  in  bulk,  one  of  the 
most  graphic  and  impressionistic  is  Captain  Head's. 
Many  of  these  fleeting  impressions  were  no  doubt  faulty, 
but  Head  was  a  keen  observer,  blessed  with  a  sense  of 
humor,  who  interested  himself  in  his  glimpses  of  the  local 
anthropology,  and  was  not  above  laying  stress  on  such 
topics  as  the  remarkable  independence  of  the  Gaucho 
child,  and  the  like.  In  order  to  show  this  author  as  he  is 
I  will  pluck  a  few  lines  from  his  pages,  not  from  those 
dealing  with  his  more  dramatic  and  Indian-haunted  ca- 
reerings  across  the  plains.  This  is  merely  an  incident 
concerning  a  pig: 

*'I  saw  a  man  on  foot  select  a  very  large  pig  from  a 
herd,  and  throwing  a  lasso  over  his  neck,  he  pulled  it 
with  all  his  strength,  but  the  pig  had  no  idea  of  obeying 
the  summons:  in  an  instant  a  little  child  rode  up,  and 
very  quietly  taking  the  end  of  the  lasso  from  the  man,  he 
lifted  up  the  sheep-skin  which  covered  the  saddle,  fixed 
the  lasso  to  the  ring  which  is  there  made  for  it,  and  then 
instantly  set  off  at  a  gallop.  Never  did  any  one  see  an 
obstinate  animal  so  completely  conquered !  With  his  tail 
pointing  to  the  ground,  hanging  back,  and  with  his  four 
feet  all  scratching  along  the  ground  like  the  teeth  of  a 
harrow,  he  followed  the  boy  evidently  altogether  against 
his  will;  and  the  sight  was  so  strange,  that  I  instantly 
galloped  by  the  side  of  the  pig,  to  watch  his  countenance. 
He  was  as  obstinate  as  ever  until  the  lasso  choked  him, 
and  then  he  fainted  and  fell  on  his  side.  The  boy  dragged 
him  in  this  state,  at  a  gallop,  more  than  three  quarters 
of  a  mile  over  hard,  rough  ground,  and  at  last  suddenly 


SOUTH  AMERICA  IN  ENGLISH  PRINT         443 

stopped,  and  jumping  off  his  horse,  began  to  unloose  the 
lasso: — "Estd  muerto!"  (he  is  dead)  said  I  to  the  boy, 
really  sorry  for  the  pig's  fate.  " Std  vivo!"  exclaimed 
the  child,  as  he  vaulted  on  his  horse,  and  galloped  away. 
I  watched  the  pig  for  some  time,  and  was  observing  the 
blood  on  his  nose,  when,  to  my  great  surprise,  he  began 
to  kick  his  hind  leg:  he  then  opened  his  mouth,  and  at 
last  his  eyes ;  and  after  he  had  looked  about  him,  a  little 
like  Clarence  after  his  dream,  he  got  up,  and  very  lei- 
surely walked  to  a  herd  of  ten  or  twelve  pigs  of  about  the 
same  size  as  himself,  who  were  about  twenty  yards  off.  I 
slowly  followed  him,  and  when  I  came  to  the  herd,  I  saw 
that,  from  the  same  cause,  they  had  every  one  of  them 
bloody  noses." 

This  extract  seems  to  me  to  combine  several  merits. 
There  is  a  subtle  and  indefinable  porcine  flavor  about  it 
which  seems  to  suggest  the  atmosphere  of  Charles  Lamb's 
famous  essay  on  the  sucking-pig — added  to  a  sketch  of  a 
contemporary  Gaucho  child,  and  of  the  minor  livestock 
operations  of  the  period ! 

Beyond  this  I  must  not  omit  to  mention  a  little  anony- 
mous book  published  in  1824,  the  *' Narrative  of  a  Jour- 
ney from  Santiago  de  Chile  to  Buenos  Aires,  in  July  and 
August,  1821,"  which  contains  this  curt  and  unpromising 
preface : 

"This  journal  is  only  the  catalogue  of  vexations  that 
assailed  an  individual  passing  the  Andes  in  the  midst  of 
winter,  and,  subsequently,  crossing  the  Continent  of  South 
America. 

'  '■  With  his  mind  wholly  intent  on  speedily  finishing  his 
journey,  and  sufficiently  occupied  in  surmounting  the  dif- 
ficulties that  obstructed  it,  he  had  little  inclination  and 
less  leisure  to  profit  by  those  few  opportunities  of  remark 
which  might  have  presented  themselves  during  his  rapid 
progress;  still  less  was  he  disposed,  or  able,  when  the 
day's  work  was  done,  to  devote  any  time  to  reflection. 
Fatigued  to  death,  hardly  awake,  memory  failing,  he  has- 


444      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

tily  wrote  what  first  occurred,  and  frequently  fell  asleep 
whilst  noting  down  the  events  of  the  day. ' ' 

Tempora  mutantur.  This  is  not  the  sort  of  book  no- 
tice one  meets  with  among  the  modern  publishers'  ad- 
vertisements !  But  the  reader  must  not  judge  this  anony- 
mous and  too  modest  an  author's  work  by  its  preface. 
Notwithstanding  this  attempt  at  self-condemnation,  the 
book  gives  a  most  interesting  account  of  a  perilous 
journey. 

It  was  at  this  period,  too,  that  Mrs.  Graham  published 
her  ''Journal  of  a  Residence  in  Chile,  during  the  year 
1822-1824" — a  work  which  deals  shrewdly  enough  with 
the  contemporary  political  situation  in  Chile,  as  well  as 
with  the  local  manners  and  customs,  and  the  author's  ex- 
periences. 

A  book  that  is  worthy  of  perusal  is  an  illustrated  three 
volume  publication,  "An  Historical  and  descriptive  Nar- 
rative of  twenty-four  years'  Residence  in  South  Ameri- 
ca," produced  by  W.  B.  Stevenson  in  1825. 

In  the  following  year  was  produced  in  New  York  ''A 
view  of  South  America  and  Mexico  by  a  Citizen  of  the 
United  States,"  by  John  Milton  Miles. 

Among  other  descriptive  works  is  J.  Thomson's  ''Let- 
ters on  the  Moral  and  Religious  state  of  South  America, 
written  during  a  Residence  of  nearly  seven  years  in  Bue- 
nos Aires,  Chile,  Peru,  and  Colombia"  (1827). 

In  this  year,  too,  was  issued  Captain  (afterwards  Sir 
Francis)  Head's  "Reports  relating  to  the  Failure  of  the 
Rio  Plata  Mining  Association,  formed  under  the  author- 
ity, signed  by  His  Excellency,  Don  Bernadino  Rivadavia ' ' 
• — a  document  that  is  not  without  its  importance  in  the 
commercial  world. 

One  of  the  first  volumes  which  dealt  with  Paraguay  in 
its  curious  hermit  phase  was  the  "Narrative  of  Facts 
connected  with  the  Change  effected  in  the  Political  Con- 
ditions and  Relations  of  Paraguay,  under  the  Direction 
of  Dr.  Thomas  Francia,"  etc.  (1826). 


SOUTH  AMERICA  IN  ENGLISH  PRINT         445 

This  was  in  some  sense  a  prelude  to  the  '*  Letters  on 
Paraguay"  by  J.  P.  and  W.  P.  Robertson,  published  in 
1838.  These  letters  are  of  deep  interest,  although  they 
necessarily  lose  a  great  deal  by  the  fact  that  they  were 
written  nearly  thirty  years  after  the  events  which  they 
describe.  The  authors  were  fortunate  in  meeting  nu- 
merous South  Americans  of  distinction  including  the 
Paraguayan  Dictator  Francia,  the  Argentine  General 
San  Martin,  and  many  others. 

So  absorbing  is  the  interest  of  the  matter  with  which 
the  Robertsons  have  dealt  that  there  is  no  doubt  that 
their  strong  sense  of  the  dramatic  has  in  the  course  of 
these  letters  more  than  once  taken  the  bit  in  its  teeth  and 
run  away  with  them.  That  much  of  their  work  was  ac- 
cepted seriously  by  that  fine  Argentine  historian,  General 
Bartolome  Mitre,  is  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  he  incor- 
porated a  number  of  their  pages  into  his  "Historia  de 
San  Martin."  Nevertheless  here  and  there  it  seems  clear 
that  matters  of  history  and  hearsay  have  been  promoted 
out  of  their  rightful  category  to  the  rank  of  personal  ex- 
periences narrated  at  first  hand.  Nevertheless,  when 
such  froth  has  been  blown  away  a  quantity  of  valuable 
matter  remains. 

In  1839  these  authors  published  a  continuation  of  their 
letters,  *' Francia 's  Reign  of  Terror,"  and  in  1843  they 
produced  a  third  work:  "Letters  on  South  America." 

We  may  now  turn  to  a  few  books  on  Brazilian  topics. 

An  insight  into  the  annoying  methods  in  which  the  Bra- 
zilian colonial  officialdom  often  thought  fit  to  indulge  is 
given  by  Thomas  Lindley's  ''Narrative  of  a  voyage  to 
Brazil,  terminating  in  the  seizure  of  a  British  vessel,  and 
the  Imprisonment  of  the  Author  and  the  Ship's  Crew," 
etc.  It  saw  the  light  in  1805.  This,  however,  must  have 
been  one  of  the  last  instances  of  such  procedure  on  the 
part  of  a  narrow-minded  colonial  government,  for  Brazil 
was  on  the  eve  of  important  changes  and  political  pro- 
motion. 


446     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

In  1810  Lieutenant  Count  Thomas  O'Neill  gave  to  the 
public  ' '  A  Concise  and  Accurate  Account  of  the  Proceed- 
ings of  the  Squadron  under  the  command  of  Rear- Admiral 
Sir  Sydney  Smith  in  effecting  the  escape  of  the  Royal 
Family  of  Portugal  to  the  Brazils  on  Nov.  29,  1807 ;  and 
also  the  Sufferings  of  the  Royal  Fugitives,  etc.,  during 
their  voyage  from  Lisbon  to  Rio  Janeiro. ' ' 

While  on  the  subject  of  such  episodes,  a  notable  contri- 
bution to  general  history  may  be  considered. 

Immeasurably  the  most  important  nineteenth  century 
historical  work  on  Brazil  was  Robert  Southey's  ''History 
of  Brazil,"  the  first  volume  of  which  appeared  in  1810. 
The  poet,  who  was  greatly  assisted  by  his  uncle,  the  Brit- 
ish chaplain  in  Lisbon,  obtained  special  facilities,  and  the 
access  to  many  valuable  state  documents,  for  the  writing 
of  this  book.  The  result  is  a  most  admirable  work,  which 
still  takes  rank  as  the  standard  publication  on  the  history 
of  Brazil  up  to  the  early  nineteenth  century.  As  such, 
indeed,  it  has  been  acknowledged  by  the  Brazilians  them- 
selves. 

Seven  years  elapsed  between  the  publication  of 
Southey's  first  volume  and  that  of  his  second.  In  the 
meantime  a  French  historian  had  published  a  history  of 
Brazil,  and,  while  twitting  Southey  with  the  charge  that 
his  first  volume  had  revealed  nothing  new,  accused  him 
of  having  abandoned  the  promised  completion  of  the  work. 

Southey's  retort  to  M.  Alphonse  de  Beauchamp  occu- 
pies the  greater  part  of  the  preface  to  his  second  volume. 
So  far  as  reputation  is  concerned,  it  leaves  his  antagonist 
as  nude  as  Adam  before  the  apple !  It  shows  conclusively 
that  de  Beauchamp 's  work  is  nothing  but  the  most  fla- 
grant plagiarism  of  Southey's  first  volume,  even  to  the 
extent  of  using  the  marginal  references  of  this  latter  as 
the  list  of  authorities ! 

This  was  turning  the  tables  with  a  vengeance.  Indeed, 
it  is  difficult  to  suppose  that  the  publication  of  this  pref- 
ace did  not  leave  de  Beauchamp  plastered  with  shame, 


SOUTH  AMERICA  IN- ENGLISH  PRINT         447 

yet,  possibly  not :  the  other  appears  to  have  been  a  hard- 
ened criminal  in  this  respect:  "For  M.  Beauchamp,"  says 
Southey,  *'is  no  novice  in  the  art  of  plagiarism,  as  M.  de 
Puissaye  and  others  of  his  countrymen  may  bear  wit- 
ness." 

This  work  of  Southey 's,  it  may  be  said,  has  met  with 
as  much  appreciation  in  Brazil  as  in  England,  a  high  test 
of  its  value. 

In  1821  appeared  **A  History  of  the  Brazil"  by  James 
Henderson,  which,  published  by  the  same  firm,  has  an  ap- 
pearance which  is  almost  identical  with  that  of  Southey 's 
** Brazil."  Henderson's  work  is  a  most  useful  produc- 
tion, but  why,  in  those  days  of  a  tenuous  output  of  vol- 
ume, it  should  have  been  published  just  after  Southey 's 
masterwork  had  seen  the  light,  is  difficult  to  understand. 
Perhaps  the  author  himself  had  some  doubts  on  this  point, 
for  in  his  dedication  to  Lord  Lowther  he  hopes  that  "if 
the  style  in  which  I  present  the  new  fruit,  gathered  from 
the  branches  of  the  tree  of  knowledge  that  are  spread  in  a 
far  country,  is  not  considered  interesting,  the  fruit  itself 
will  be  found,  I  hope,  acceptable  and  useful." 

However,  perhaps  Henderson  relied  on  the  plates  which 
he  claims,  are  "amongst  the  best  of  their  style"  to  eclipse 
the  interest  in  Southey 's  unillustrated  volumes.  Cer- 
tainly the  frontispiece,  representing  Dom  Joao  of  Portu- 
gal and  Brazil  accompanied  by  queerly-anatomical  horses 
and  men,  is  as  unconsciously  humorous  as  any  of  those 
old-fashioned  Japanese  or  Hindu  representations  of  Eu- 
ropean life.  But  even  such  as  this  did  not  suffice  to  dis- 
turb Robert  Southey 's  clear  supremacy! 

We  may  now  turn  to  some  lighter  work. 

Just  as  a  number  of  English  authors  hastened  to  de- 
scribe the  independent  states  into  which  the  one-time 
Spanish  colonies  had  resolved  themselves,  so  did  many  of 
their  colleagues  give  their  impressions  of  Brazil  in  its 
first  period  of  royalty. 

Among  the  earliest  of  these  was  a  book  published  in 


448     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

1812  by  John  Mawe:  ''Travels  in  the  interior  of  Brazil, 
particularly  in  the  gold  and  diamond  districts  of  that 
country,  including  a  voyage  to  the  Rio  de  la  Plata. ' '  This 
book  is  a  notable  publication  in  its  way,  since  it  is  the  first 
to  describe  the  remoter  interior  of  the  country. 

Other  works  descriptive  of  Brazilian  life  and  landscape 
of  this  period  were  written  by  Mrs.  Graham  (1820),  John 
Luccock  (1820),  G.  F.  Mathison  (1825),  and  the  Rev.  R. 
Walsh,  who  in  his  ''Notices  of  Brazil"  presents  a  very 
lively  and  interesting  picture  of  the  society  and  manners 
such  as  prevailed  in  the  new  Kingdom  of  the  Tropics. 
Mr.  Walsh  was  chaplain  at  the  British  embassy  at  Rio 
de  Janeiro,  and  met  most  of  the  notabilities  of  Brazil, 
from  the  emperor  downwards.  Being  a  broad-minded 
cleric,  he  made  the  fullest  use  of  his  frequent  opportuni- 
ties of  absorbing  local  knowledge. 

Mrs.  Graham's  book,  too,  is  sufficiently  notable  for  the 
insight  it  affords  into  the  affairs  of  the  Brazilian  court. 
This  lady,  it  may  be  explained,  was  instructress  for  a 
year  to  Dona  Maria  of  Portugal  at  Rio.  The  daughter 
of  Rear-Admiral  Dundas,  her  first  acquaintance  with 
South  America  was  made  in  her  husband's  (Captain 
Graham,  R.  N.)  frigate.  His  death  off  the  Chilean  coast 
left  her  a  widow,  and  after  her  sojourn  in  Chile  and  Brazil 
she  returned  to  England,  and  eventually  became  the  wife 
of  the  well-known  artist  Calcott. 

As  so  much  space  has  already  been  devoted  to  the  prin- 
cipal early  nineteenth  century  writers  on  the  Pacific  coast 
it  will  not  be  necessary  to  deal  with  them  at  any  length 
here. 

Captain  Basil  Hall's  "Extracts  from  a  Journal  written 
on  the  Coasts  of  Chili,  Peru,  and  Mexico  (first  pub- 
lished, I  think,  in  1823;  the  author's  edition  (1824)  is  the 
second,  is  in  many  respects  the  most  valuable  of  all  these. 
This  book,  however,  has  already  been  fully  dealt  with. 
Then,  of  course,  there  are  Cochrane 's  own  reminiscences. 


SOUTH  AMERICA  IN  ENGLISH  PRINT         449 

and  General  Miller's  Memoirs,  published  in  1828.  These, 
too,  need  no  further  mention. 

A  very  quaint  little  production  which  comes  under  this 
heading  of  the  Pacific  coast  is  the  "Narrative  of  the  Brit- 
on's Voyage,"  by  Lieut.  J.  Shillibeer,  R.  M.  It  is  true 
that  this  work  only  touches  lightly  on  both  the  Atlantic 
and  Pacific  coasts  of  South  America,  but  much  of  it  is  of 
considerable  interest,  and,  incidentally,  it  may  be  said 
that  the  ingenuousness  of  the  author 's  illustrations  alone 
suffices  to  make  the  book  somewhat  of  a  curiosity. 

This  is  the  case,  too,  with  the  ''Journal  written  on 
board  of  His  Majesty's  ship  Cambridge,  by  the  Rev.  H.  S., 
Chaplain."  It  is  true  that  the  illustration  here  is  con- 
fined to  a  colored  frontispiece — but  the  lady  of  Peru 
which  it  depicts  could  scarcely  be  taken  seriously  any- 
where outside  a  nightmare.  This  does  not,  however,  in 
the  least  detract  from  the  value  of  the  book,  which  gives 
an  accurate,  full,  and  interesting  picture  of  the  life  and 
personalities  of  the  Chilean  and  Peruvian  coasts  of  that 
period.  Moreover,  the  Rev.  H.  S.,  a  most  broad-minded 
chaplain,  had  a  liberal  education  in  the  South  American 
personalities  of  that  period,  for  he  not  only  met  Bolivar, 
Bernardo  O'Higgins,  and  others,  but  O'Higgins'  mother, 
a  lady  of  considerable  romance  and  mystery,  whom  he  de- 
scribes as  a  "  pleasant,  lively  old  woman. ' ' 

In  the  1820 's  many  fine  aquatints  of  South  America 
were  included  in  the  publications  of  Buenos  Aires  and 
of  Monte  Video"  (1820) — a  work  sufficiently  well  known 
among  connoisseurs — contains  twenty-four  fine  specimens 
of  aquatints. 

But  the  wonderfully  picturesque  landscape  of  Brazil 
naturally  adapted  itself  more  satisfactorily  to  this  type  of 
illustration,  and  two  years  later  (1822)  was  published  one 
of  the  finest  collections  of  colored  aquatints  that  South 
America  has  known,  Sir  Henry  Chamberlain's  ''Views 
and  Costumes  of  the  City  and  Neighbourhood  of  Rio  de 


450     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

Janeiro,  from  drawings  taken  by  Lieut.  Chamberlain, 
Royal  Artillery,  1819-20." 

At  one  time  a  copy  of  this  very  rare  book  was  in  the 
possession  of  the  author  of  the  present  work. 

After  this  we  may  proceed  for  a  time  more  or  less  in 
chronological  sequence,  leaving  the  geographical  order  of 
the  works  to  look  after  itself.  The  first  four  books  con- 
cern the  Northern  republics. 

In  1820  George  L.  Chesterton  wrote  the  ''Narrative  of 
proceedings  in  Venezuela,  in  South  America,  in  1819  and 
1820,  with  General  Observations  on  the  Country  and  Peo- 
ple." 

Eight  years  later  was  published  a  work  of  rather  un- 
usual interest:  "Recollections  of  a  service  of  three  years 
during  the  "War  of  Extermination  in  the  Republics  of 
Venezuela  and  Colombia.  By  an  officer  of  the  Colombian 
Navy." 

The  author  of  this  was  an  English  naval  officer,  who 
took  service  with  the  South  Americans,  and  who  took  part 
in  sufficient  fighting,  both  on  water  and  land,  to  gratify 
the  taste  of  the  firiest  of  fire-eaters !  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
no  one  can  have  had  a  much  wider  experience  of  this  pe- 
culiarly merciless  campaign  than  this  anonymous  author. 
The  part  he  played  was  not  confined  to  such  stirring  in- 
cidents as  the  gunboat  battles  on  the  Northern  rivers,  and 
such  charges  as  that  at  the  battle  of  Carabobo.  Having 
fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  Spaniards,  he,  heavily  chained, 
was  about  to  pay  the  usual  penalty  of  death  when  he  was 
assisted  to  escape  by  a  certain  0 'Regan,  a  Spanish  officer 
of  Irish  descent.  After  this  he  suffered  imprisonment  at 
the  hands  of  his  own  superior  officer,  Barino,  a  depraved 
patriot-leader,  whose  spite  was  curbed  by  the  subsequent 
court  martial,  which  immediately  acquitted  the  English- 
man. 

Undoubtedly  the  writer  gives  his  impressions  under  the 
stress  of  not  a  little  inevitable  feeling,  and,  owing  to  this, 
portions  of  the  book  must  be  received  with  some  reserve. 


SOUTH  AMERICA  IN  ENGLISH  PRINT         451 

A  friend  and  admirer  of  several  officers  displaced  by 
Bolivar,  he  shows  himself — however  unconscious  he 
may  have  been  of  the  fact — somewhat  antagonistically  dis- 
posed towards  the  Liberator.  Hence  the  pictures  we  re- 
ceive from  him  of  Bolivar  do  not  err  on  the  flattering 
side.  Here  is  the  account  of  his  first  presentation  to  the 
great  South  American: 

"At  the  door  of  the  apartment,  which  stood  partly 
open,  were  two  English  soldiers,  who  were  fixed  there  as 
sentinels,  to  prevent  any  unseasonable  inte-rruption  upon 
his  excellency ;  and  Captain  Mardyn  having  retired,  I  de- 
sired one  of  them  to  announce  to  Bolivar  the  arrival  of  a 
British  officer  with  despatches  from  the  Venezuelan  Con- 
gress. He  did  so,  and  returned  with  an  order  for  my 
immediate  entrance.  I  went  into  the  room,  which  was 
large,  but  dirty,  and  scantily  provided  with  furniture.  At 
the  further  end  sat  Colonel  O'Leary,  then  one  of  his  ex- 
cellency's secretaries,  on  the  ground,  with  a  small  writ- 
ing-desk in  his  lap,  writing  despatches  of  a  military  na- 
ture, at  the  dictation  of  Bolivar,  who,  at  the  other  end  of 
the  room,  was  sitting  on  the  edge  of  a  large  South  Amer- 
ican cot  slung  from  the  ceiling.  To  avoid  the  inconveni- 
ence of  the  heat,  he  was  quite  unencumbered  with  apparel 
or  covering  of  any  description,  and  was  swinging  himself 
violently  by  means  of  a  coquita  rope,  attached  to  a  hook 
driven  into  the  opposite  wall  for  the  purpose.  Thus 
curiously  situated,  he  alternately  dictated  to  O'Leary 
and  whistled  a  French  republican  tune,  to  which  he  beat 
time  by  knocking  his  feet  laterally  ...  he  instantly 
sprang  from  the  cot  and  proceeded  to  embrace  me,  ac- 
cording to  the  custom  of  the  country,  by  enclosing  me  in 
his  arms  and  kissing  my  cheek.  Such  a  proof  of  regard 
not  being  very  congenial  with  my  feelings,  more  particu- 
larly when  otfered  by  a  person  in  a  total  state  of  nudity, 
I  declined  it  in  no  very  gentle  manner;  upon  which  he 
looked  as  though  somewhat  displeased,  and  turned  toward 
his  secretary  with  evident  marks  of  astonishment.     The 


452     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

Colonel,  who  entered  into  my  feelings  at  once,  represented 
to  him  that  such  a  custom  was  foreign  to  his  countrymen, 
and  hoped,  therefore,  that  he  would  pardon  the  ungentle 
repulse  I  had  given  him.  His  Excellency  smiled,  and  ex- 
tended to  me  his  hand  with  an  air  of  the  warmest  cor- 
diality, which  mark  of  condescension  I  respectfully  ac- 
knowledged, and  he  returned  to  his  cot  to  finish  the  de- 
spatches, while  I  smoked  a  cigar." 

It  is  a  curious  glimpse  of  Bolivar,  this — as  unexpected 
as  many  of  the  author's  comments  on  his  brother  officers, 
British  or  South  American,  concerning  which  the  reader 
is  occasionally  left  in  doubt  as  to  whether  their  accuracy 
rivals  their  frankness!  At  the  same  time,  it  is  clear 
enough  that  the  impressions  are  honestly  given. 

Captain  Charles  Stuart  Cochrane 's  ''Journal  of  a  resi- 
dence and  travels  in  Colombia  during  the  years  1823  and 
1824"  must  not  be  judged  by  its  colored  frontispiece. 
This  depicts  our  author,  who  was  a  gallant  British  naval 
officer,  in  Colombian  costume  leaning  on  his  steed,  whether 
mule  or  ass,  whose  mther  does  not  reach  to  Captain  Coch- 
rane's  thigh.  The  art  of  the  early  nineteenth  century  is 
not  that  of  to-day,  and  an  uninitiated  and  disinterested 
modern  spectator  might  well  suspect  a  touch  of  humor  in 
the  conception — and  especially  in  the  expression  of  the 
steed — which  was  never  in  the  remotest  degree  intended. 

Captain  Cochrane  visited  Colombia  just  when  the  War 
of  Independence  was  drawing  to  a  victorious  conclusion. 
He  saw,  therefore,  much  of  the  new  South  American  so- 
ciety which  was  in  the  course  of  formation,  and  his  book 
is  a  mine  of  information  on  the  customs  and  entertain- 
ments of  the  period.  Many  of  his  descriptions  are  of 
high  interest.  Here,  for  instance  is  his  account  of  a 
national  fandango : 

"This  dance  is  intended  as  a  dumb  representation  of 
courtship.  The  music  begins  at  first  slow  and  monoto- 
nous, but  gradually  increases  from  andante  to  allegro. 
The  gentleman  commences  by  pursuing  the  lady  quietly 


SOUTH  AMERICA  IN  ENGLISH  PRINT         453 

and  gently,  and  the  lady  retreats  in  like  manner,  making 
short  circles,  and  turning  on  her  heel  at  each  time  that 
her  partner  approaches,  quickening  her  step  and  revolu- 
tions as  the  time  of  the  music  increases,  until  she  per- 
ceives that  he  seems  inclined  to  give  up  the  pursuit; 
repentance  follows,  and  the  pursuer  is  in  his  turn  pur- 
sued, making  similar  retreats,  and  the  same  circumvolu- 
tions that  the  lady  so  recently  practised,  until  at  last,  re- 
lenting, he  turns  to  meet  her,  and  they  approach  each 
other  more  closely,  and  being  apparently  reconciled,  make 
three  or  four  peculiar  stamps  with  their  feet,  bow  to 
each  other,  and  retire,  tolerably  exhausted,  amidst  the  ac- 
clamations of  the  by-standers,  to  make  way  for  another 
couple." 

It  was  in  these  Northern  and  tropical  regions  of  the 
continent,  of  course,  that  the  local  color  was  inclined  to 
be  not  only  most  brilliant,  but  most  bizarre.  This  will  be 
obvious  enough  from  Captain  Cochrane 's  description  of 
the  Cock  Mass,  which  is  worthy  of  reproduction  in  full : 

''At  midnight  a  curious  custom  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  was  performed,  called  the  Cock  Mass,  in  com- 
memoration of  the  crowing  of  the  cock  which  took  place 
on  Peter 's  denial  of  Christ.  When  the  curate  commences 
the  service,  the  people  imitate  and  mock  his  gesture,  tone 
of  voice,  and  manner  of  reading ;  make  all  kinds  of  noise 
— shouting,  bawling,  hooting,  and  imitating  the  crowing 
of  the  cock,  with  every  possible  exertion  of  lungs;  the 
whole  forming  an  exhibition  most  deafening  to  the  ear, 
and  perfectly  ridiculous  to  the  eye.  There  is  another 
church  service,  quite  as  ludicrous  and  preposterous,  on 
the  day  of  celebrating  the  Rending  of  the  Veil  of  the 
Temple,  when  our  Saviour  gave  up  the  ghost.  The  peo- 
ple have  large  hammers,  with  which  they  beat  the  benches, 
and  have  sheets  of  tin,  etc.,  which  they  shake,  to  imitate 
the  noise  of  thunder  as  nearly  as  possible.  An  English 
colonel,  in  the  republican  service,  on  this  occasion  thought 
he  could  add  to  the  scene,  by  imitating  the  English  fox- 


454     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

hunter's  tallyho,  which  he  did  with  so  much  strength  and 
clearness  of  lungs,  as  quite  to  excel  any  noise  of  other 
persons;  and  gained  by  it  so  much  of  the  curate's  good 
will,  who  imagined  that  his  religion  was  in  proportion  to 
the  vehemence  of  his  utterance,  that  after  the  service  he 
came  to  him,  and  seizing  his  hand,  thanked  him  most 
cordially  for  his  kind  addition  to  the  devotion  of  the 
night.'* 

In  1827  appeared  "The  Present  State  of  Colombia :  con- 
taining an  account  of  the  Principal  Events  of  its  Revolu- 
tionary War,  the  Expeditions  fitted  out  in  England  to 
assist  in  its  Emancipation,  by  an  officer,"  and  various 
other  works  concerning  Colombia  appeared  at  this  period. 

It  was,  by  the  way,  two  years  previously  to  this  that 
Charles  Waterton  published  his  famous  ''Wanderings  in 
South  America,"  a  work  which  has  already  been  fully 
dealt  with  in  these  pages.  The  same  applies  to  Charles 
Darwin's  ''Voyage  of  a  Naturalist,"  published  in  1840, 
fifteen  years  later. 

In  1829  Lieutenant  H.  Lister  Maw,  R.  N.,  who,  by  the 
way,  was  the  first  Englishman  to  descend  the  Amazon, 
published  his  "Journal  of  a  Passage  from  the  Pacific  to 
the  Atlantic,  crossing  the  Andes  in  the  Northern  Prov- 
inces of  Peru,  and  descending  the  River  Maragnon  or 
Amazon. ' ' 

In  1834  Dr.  W.  H.  B.  Webster  published  the  "Narrative 
of  a  Voyage  to  the  Southern  Atlantic  Ocean  .  .  .  per- 
formed in  H.M.  Sloop  Chanticleer,  undei'  the  command  of 
the  late  Captain  Henry  Forster,  F.R.S.,  etc."  The  sub- 
ject of  this  has  already  been  dealt  with. 

Two  years  later  appeared  the  "Diary  of  the  Wreck 
of  the  H.M.  Ship  Challenger  on  the  Western  Coast  of 
South  America,  in  May,  1835,  with  an  account  of  the  sub- 
sequent Encampment  of  the  Officer  and  Crew,  during  a 
period  of  Seven  Weeks  on  the  South  Coast  of  Chili." 

In  1835  was  produced  another  interesting  work,  of 
wider  scope,  "Three  years  in  the  Pacific,  containing  no- 


SOUTH  AMERICA  IN  ENGLISH  PRINT         455 

tices  of  Brazil,  Chile,  Bolivia,  Peru,  etc.,  in  1831,  1832, 
1833,  1834,  by  an  Officer  in  the  United  States  Navy." 

In  1836  John  Armitage  published  an  important  histor- 
ical work,  that  still  remains  as  a  standard  book  of  refer- 
ence, the  ''History  of  Brazil,  from  the  period  of  the  ar- 
rival of  the  Braganza  family  in  1808,  to  the  abdication  of 
Don  Pedro  the  First  in  1831,  compiled  from  State  Docu- 
ments, and  other  Original  Sources,  forming  a  continua- 
tion to  Southey's  History  of  that  Country." 

Two  years  later  John  Hawkshaw  added  to  the  compara- 
tively slender  stock  of  literature  on  the  Northern  half 
of  the  continent  by  "Reminiscences  of  South  America, 
from  Two  and  a  Half  Years'  Residence  in  Venezuela." 

In  1838  the  Hon.  P.  C.  Scarlett  published  a  book  on  a 
road  which  was  now  becoming  fairly  well  trodden: 
''South  America  and  the  Pacific,  comprising  a  Journey 
across  the  Pampas  and  the  Andes,  from  Buenos  Aires  to 
Valparaiso,  Lima,  and  Panama." 

The  following  year  Sir  Woodbine  Parish  produced  a 
work  on  "Buenos  Aires  and  the  Provinces  of  the  Rio  de 
la  Plata,"  of  considerable  intrinsic  merit  and  interest. 
The  view^s,  however,  on  the  politics  and  development  of 
the  river  Plate  Provinces  expressed  in  this  have  met  with 
considerable  criticism  from  later  writers. 

In  1841  Captain  Allen  F.  Gardiner,  R.N.,  published  "A 
Visit  to  the  Indians  on  the  Frontiers  of  Chili,"  a  work 
which  deals  with  the  possibilities  of  missionary  effort 
among  the  Araucanian  Indians  of  Southern  Chile.  It 
was  this  book,  by  the  way,  which  helped  toward  the  forma- 
tion of  the  Patagonian  Missionary  Society,  from  which 
sprang  the  present  South  American  Missionary  Society. 
The  closing  chapter  of  the  mission  of  Captain  Allen  Gar- 
diner and  the  story  of  his  death  are  given  in  a  little  book 
entitled  "The  Giants  of  Patagonia,"  produced  by  Captain 
Browne  in  1853. 

In  1842  was  published  a  large  and  most  thorough  mono- 
graph: the  "Description  of  the  Skeleton  of  an  extinct 


456     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

Gigantic  Sloth,"  by  Eichard  Owen,  F.R.S.  Tliis  giant 
sloth  was  found  some  seven  leagues  to  the  north  of  the 
city  of  Buenos  Aires.  The  work  deals  with  it  in  the 
most  important  and  conscientious  fashion,  some  of  the 
folding  illustrations  being  of  a  size  sufficiently  immense 
to  content  the  pride  of  the  shade  even  of  a  gigantic  sloth ! 

The  following  year  J.  P.  and  W.  P.  Robertson  gave  out 
'*  Letters  on  South  America,  comprising  Travels  on  the 
Banks  of  the  Parana  and  Rio  de  la  Plata." 

In  1843  George  Jones,  M.R.S.L,  F.S.V.,  published  ''The 
History  of  Ancient  America  .  .  .  proving  the  identity 
of  the  aborigines  with  the  Tyreans  and  Israelites ;  and  the 
introduction  of  Christianity  into  the  Western  Hemisphere 
by  the  Apostle  St.  Thomas. ' '  This  ambitious  work  has  a 
correspondingly  ambitious  frontispiece,  representing  the 
bust  of  the  author,  classically  carved  and  with  shoulders 
draped  with  a  classic  toga.  The  first  volume  was  dedi- 
cated to  Frederick  William  the  Fourth,  King  of  Prussia, 
''with  feelings  of  enthusiasm."  And  the  author  contin- 
ues: "If,  in  the  following  pages,  your  Majesty  should 
recognize  Your  own  portraiture  in  that  of  Hiram  the 
Great,  it  is  such  as  truth  and  history  have  designed  and 
coloured ; — fawning  flattery  and  false  adulation  have  not 
added  even  a  thought  to  embellish,  where  Patriotism  has 
so  nobly  consolidated"! 

Then  came  the  question  of  the  second  volume ! 

Its  dedication  is  on  a  par  with  the  rest.  From  this  it 
appears  that  "An  Illustrious  Prince"  was  first  chosen  for 
the  distinction.  But  this  Prince,  inclined  to  hedge 
waived  his  right  suggesting  instead  ' '  some  Theologian  of 
high  rank  among  the  sacred  Profession,  and  eminent  for 
Learning  and  Piety."  This  person,  concluded  George 
Jones,  could  be  no  other  than  the  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, and  in  three  sentences — which  occupy  two  pages — 
he  lays  his  work  at  the  prelate's  feet. 

Is  it  necessary  to  say  more?  George  Jones  was  a 
crank,  and  his  book  is  that  of  a  crank !    Yet  some  of  its 


SOUTH  AMERICA  IN  ENGLISH  PRINT         457 

matter  has  been  quoted  by  some  later  authors  whose  work 
was  not  without  weight. 

In  order  to  find  a  companion-volume  for  this  last  I 
will  drag  from  its  proper  chronological  place  another 
book  which  I  imagine — though  I  have  not  had  the  advan- 
tage of  reading  it — may  be  safely  introduced  into  the 
crank  section,  if  by  no  other  virtue  than  that  of  its  il- 
luminating title,  which  is  '' Researches  into  the  Lost  His- 
tories of  America,  or  the  Zodiac  shown  to  be  an  old  Ter- 
restrial Map  in  which  the  Atlantic  Isle  is  delineated,  so 
that  light  can  be  thrown  upon  the  obscure  Histories  of  the 
Earthworks  and  Ruined  Cities  of  America."  This  work, 
published  in  1883,  is,  I  believe,  eloquent  of  the  alleged 
demons  of  South  America,  and  is  from  the  pen  of  Mr.  W. 
S.  Blacket. 

In  1846,  when  the  powder  of  the  Argentine  Dictator 
Rosas  was  at  its  height,  Colonel  J.  A.  King  gave  to  the 
world :  ' '  Twenty-four  years  in  the  Argentine  Republic, 
embracing  the  author's  personal  adventures  with  the 
Civil  and  Military  History  of  the  Country,  and  an  account 
of  its  political  Condition,  before  and  during  the  Adminis- 
tration of  Governor  Rosas,"  etc.  Let  it  be  said  of  this 
book  that  it  is  as  wild  as  were  the  times  it  was  written  in 
— and,  in  many  pages,  a  good  deal  wilder !  But  much  of 
the  local  color  is  undoubtedly  accurate,  and  all  that  is 
necessary  is  a  grain  or  two  of  salt  to  apply  to  the  adven- 
ture portion  of  the  book ! 

How  thoroughly  General  Rosas  understood  the  art  of 
propaganda  may  be  gathered  from  an  inspired  small  book 
published  in  1844:  "Buenos  Aires-Monte  Video  and 
Affairs  in  the  River  Plate."  This  is  in  the  form  of  a 
letter  to  the  Earl  of  Aberdeen  by  a  Mr.  Alfred  Mallalieu, 
and  constitutes  a  spirited  defense  of  Rosas'  methods  of 
government  and  political  outlook. 

Three  years  later  the  American  historian  W.  H.  Pres- 
cott  published  his  ** History  of  the  Conquest  of  Peru";  a 
famous  work,  and  a  classic,  which,  of  course,  needs  no  de- 


458     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

scription  here,  beyond  the  remark  that  it  has  familiarized 
the  English-speaking  public  to  a  quite  unhoped-for  extent 
with  the  affairs  of  the  ancient  Inca  race,  as  well  as  with 
those  of  the  Spanish  conquistadors,  and  with  the  amazing 
personality  of  the  greatest  of  them  all — Pizarro,  the  one- 
time swineherd,  who  carved  out  his  own  vice-royalty,  and 
who  reigned  there  as  an  actual  king ! 

Among  the  works  on  Brazil  about  this  period  are: 
George  Gardner's  ''Travels  in  the  Interior  of  Brazil,  prin- 
cipally through  the  Northern  Provinces,  and  the  Gold  and 
Diamond  Districts,  during  the  years  1836-41"  (1846); 
W.  H.  Edwards'  "Voyages  up  the  Eiver  Amazon,  in- 
cluding a  Kesidence  at  Para"  (1847),  and  E.  Dundas' 
''Sketches  of  Brazil,  including  new  views  on  Tropical 
and  European  Fever"  (1852). 

In  1848  Commander  Mackinnon  published  his  "Steam 
Warfare  in  the  Parana,  a  narartive  of  operations  by  the 
combined  squadrons  of  England  and  France  in  forcing  a 
passage  up  that  Eiver." 

In  1848-52  Sir  Arthur  Helps  published  his  ' '  Conquer- 
ors of  the  New  World,"  a  sufficiently  notable  production, 
although  not  of  the  importance  of  "The  Spanish  Conquest 
of  America"  (1855),  or  the  "Life  of  Columbus"  by  the 
same  author. 

In  1852,  Sir  William  Gore  Ousley  published  his  "Views 
in  South  America  from  original  drawings  made  in  Brazil, 
the  Eiver  Plate,  the  Parana,  etc."  These  views  appear 
to  have  attained  to  a  sufficiently  wide  popularity,  and  we 
find  them  employed  for  the  illustration  of  several  later 
volumes  by  other  authors. 

Of  the  naturalists  who  have  been  referred  to  in  a  previ- 
ous chapter  Alfred  E.  Wallace  published  his  "Narrative 
of  Travels  on  the  Amazon  and  Eio  Negro"  in  1853,  while 
Bates  gave  out  his  "Naturalist  on  the  Eiver  Amazons" 
ten  years  later.  Of  a  third  naturalist,  Eichard  Spruce, 
who  has  already  been  referred  to,  it  may  be  repeated  that 
his  various  notes,  letters,  and  minor  works  were  only 


SOUTH  AMERICA  IN  ENGLISH  PRINT         459 

published  in  complete  volume  form  in  1908,  when  they 
were  edited  by  Wallace.  There  is  one  paragraph  from 
these  writings  of  Spruce  which  may  very  well  be  included 
here,  since  it  illustrates  rather  curiously  the  mid-nine- 
teenth century  literary  taste  in  some  of  the  remoter  parts 
of  Venezuela: 

''When  I  reached  San  Carlos  in  Venezuela  the  only 
books  in  the  Spanish  language  existing  there  were  'El 
Sepulcro,  por  Anna  Radcliffe,'  and  a  translation  of  one 
of  the  Duchesse  d'Abrantes'  novels.  They  are  scarcely 
more  numerous  at  Tarapoto,  where  one  of  the  most  fa- 
mous books  is  'Waverley  o'  ahora  sesenta  aiios,  por  Sir 
Gualterio  Scott.'  In  short,  so  far  as  I  can  judge  of  South 
America  from  having  seen  only  the  most  thinly  inhabited 
portions  of  it,  I  can  truly  say  that  Mrs.  Radcliffe,  Walter 
Scott,  and  Alexandre  Dumas  are  far  more  popular  there 
than  Cervantes  and  Camoens.  To  the  credit  of  the  Bra- 
zilians, they  are  far  more  familiar  with  the  'Lusiads'  than 
the  Spanish  Americans  are  with  'Don  Quixote.'  " 

The  same  year  was  published  W.  MacCann's  "Two 
Thousand  Miles'  Ride  through  the  Argentine  Provinces," 
one  of  the  most  interesting  books  of  its  kind  on  the  pampa. 

A  work  notable  for  its  botanical  as  well  as  for  its  gen- 
eral information  was  produced  in  1853  by  Dr.  George 
Gardiner,  superintendent  of  the  Royal  Botanic  Gardens, 
Ceylon:  "Travels  in  the  Interior  of  Brazil;  principally 
through  the  Northern  Provinces,  and  the  Gold  and  Dia- 
mond Districts,  during  the  years  1836-41." 

Even  less  known  country  was  touched  on  in  1854  by 
L.  H.  de  Bonelli,  secretary  to  the  British  legation  in  Bo- 
livia, in  "Travels  in  Bolivia,  with  a  tour  across  the 
Pampas  to  Buenos  Aires,  etc." 

In  the  same  year  William  Hadfield,  who  had  resided 
for  several  years  in  Brazil,  published  a  work,  "Brazil, 
the  River  Plate,  and  the  Falkland  Islands."  The  in- 
formation he  gives  concerning  Brazil  is  copious  and  valu- 
able, and — although  here  his  status  was  only  that  of  a 


460     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

traveler — he  has  much  to  say  on  the  river  Plate  countries 
that  is  well  worth  perusal.  Many  pages  concern  them- 
selves closely  with  the  personalities  and  parties  of  the 
great  Argentine  dictator  Rosas  and  his  one-time  adjutant 
and  subsequent  rival  Urquiza.  Hadfield's  book  appears 
to  have  attracted  considerable  attention  at  the  time,  and 
was  widely  quoted  by  many  of  the  following  writers  on 
the  river  Plate  countries.  But  this  is  undoubtedly  as 
much  due  to  the  moment  at  which  the  work  appeared  as  to 
its  intrinsic  merit.  Its  publication,  just  after  the  fall  of 
Rosas,  coincided  with  the  ushering  in  of  the  new  liberal 
epoch  of  the  river  Plate. 

The  following  year  a  certain  recrudescence  in  the  pub- 
lic interest  in  bucaneer  affairs  was  assisted  by  Mr.  0.  W. 
Thornbury's  "The  Monarchs  of  the  Main;  or,  Adven- 
tures of  the  Buccaneers." 

*' South  American  Sketches,  or  a  visit  to  Rio  Janeiro, 
the  Organ  Mountains,  La  Plata,  and  the  Parana,"  is  the 
title  of  a  book  produced  in  1863  by  Mr.  T.  W.  Hinchliff. 
Beyond  the  intrinsic  interest  of  its  subject,  this  work  is 
notable  for  a  merit  which  is  wont  to  be  lacking  in  so  many 
books  of  travel — a  literary  excellence  which  makes  it  most 
admirable  reading.  The  cheery  touch  of  this  author  may 
be  exampled  in  passages  such  as  the  one  describing  a 
shooting  expedition  on  the  Uruguay  River :  ' '  Sometimes 
a  strong  whirr  told  us  that  a  partridge  had  taken  to  the 
wood,  and  betrayed  the  course  of  his  flight ;  sometimes  a 
sharp  flapping  overhead  warned  us  that  wood-pigeons 
were  hovering  about  the  tops  of  the  trees ;  and  sometimes 
a  clatter  like  that  of  angry  Irishwomen  in  an  alley  an- 
nounced the  immediate  neighborhood  of  a  flock  of  par- 
rots. All  these  in  turn  fell  victims,  and  were  most 
sweetly  and  harmoniously  combined  into  a  mighty  pie,  the 
flavour  of  which  I  shall  never  forget,  and  which  I  can 
confidently  recommend  to  any  one  starting  for  the  pas- 
tures of  the  Uruguay." 

And  then  there  was  that  gigantic  toad  that  was  pre- 


SOUTH  AMERICA  IN  ENGLISH  PRINT         461 

sented  to  a  friend  of  Hinchliff's  in  Brazil:  the  creature 
that  was  as  big  as  a  hat,  and  that  sat  in  front  of  its 
alarmed  owner,  and  *' opened  its  mouth  like  an  oyster, 
barked  like  a  dog,  and  flew  at  his  legs !" 

It  does  not  require  the  incentive  of  a  direct  interest  in 
South  America  to  appreciate  such  touches  as  these ! 

One  of  the  most  important  British  books  of  the  mid- 
nineteenth  century  was  written  by  Mr.  C.  B.  Mansfield 
who  visited  South  America  in  1852-53.  Less  than  two 
years  after  his  return  from  the  Southern  continent,  Mans- 
field met  with  an  accident  which  caused  his  death,  and 
the  MS.  of  his  work,  ''Paraguay,  Brazil,  and  the  Plate," 
was  left  incomplete  in  some  respects. 

Charles  Kingsley,  a  friend  and  keen  admirer  of  Mans- 
field's, has  added  a  biographical  and  appreciative  note  to 
the  posthumous  volume,  which  ends  with  the  invocation : 
''Oh,  fairest  of  souls!  Happy  those  who  knew  thee  in 
this  life !  Happier  those  who  will  know  thee  in  the  life  to 
come!" 

Charles  Kingsley  was  no  careless  squanderer  of  en- 
thusiasm, and  its  subject  seems  to  have  been  amply 
worthy  of  these  exclamations.  "From  Winchester," 
says  Kingsley,  "he  went  to  Cambridge;  and  none  who 
knew  him  there  but  must  recollect  with  pleasure  his 
graceful  figure,  slight  and  delicate,  yet  trained  to  all  ath- 
letic sports,  and  of  an  activity  almost  incredible;  his 
forehead  full  and  high,  and  yet  most  bland ;  his  fair  locks ; 
his  finely-cut  features,  most  gentle  and  most  pure;  his 
eyes  beaming  with  thought,  honesty,  humor,  and  a  super- 
abundance of  genial  life,  such  as  I  who  write  have  never 
beheld  in  any  other  man. ' ' 

High  praise,  this,  from  the  man  whose  "Westward 
Ho ' '  and ' '  Hypatia ' '  were  the  fruits  of  only  a  measure  of 
his  various  powers! 

Charles  Mansfield,  a  remarkable  man,  visited  South 
America  at  a  remarkable  period.  From  the  time  of  Wil- 
liam Hawkins  to  the  present  day  very  few  British  have 


462     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

gone  out  to  South  America  for  the  purpose  of  philosophiz- 
ing. But  Mansfield  went  for  no  other  reason.  The  in- 
land State  of  Paraguay  was  his  chief  objective,  for  the 
mystery  of  isolation  had  appealed  strongly  to  his  im- 
agination. He  was  determined  to  make  an  attempt  to 
see  the  strange  land  with  his  own  eyes,  and  to  probe  into 
the  whys  and  wherefores  of  the  country  that  was  com- 
monly known  at  the  time  as  the  "Inland  Japan."  AVhat 
a  different  impression  would  this  simile  render  if  it  were 
coined  afresh  to-day ! 

Now,  judged  superficially,  Mansfield  would  have  seemed 
the  last  man  to  hobnob  successfully  with  the  rank  and 
file  of  the  South  Americans  of  that  period.  He  was  what 
is  popularly  known  as  a  "character."  He  detested  all 
tobacco  smoke,  abominated  the  idea  of  eating  animal  flesh, 
was  rather  deaf,  and  held  strong  views  on  the  economy  of 
labor,  honoring  as  he  did  the  producer  and  utterly  de- 
spising the  trader.  He  was  an  ardent  believer  in  the 
mission  of  the  British  race,  and  occasionally  loved  to 
burst  into  a  song  of  prophecy  that  was  a  curious  mixture 
of  ecstasy  and  sound  common  sense.  In  addition  to  all 
this  he  was  one  of  the  most  promising  young  chemists  in 
England,  and  his  book  exhibits  most  generously  that  flow 
of  humor  to  which  Kingsley  alludes. 

Mansfield  was  peculiarly  susceptible  to  the  beauty  of 
landscape,  and  these  are  his  exclamations  on  first  setting 
foot  in  Brazil:  "What  a  Paradise  is,  or  at  least  might 
be,  this  country  if  it  were  possessed  by  the  English.  I 
do  not  feel  at  all  sure  that  I  am  not  dead,  and  have  not 
recommenced  another  life.  .  .  .  The  beauty  is  almost  be- 
wildering. The  glorious  cocoa-nut  trees,  bananas,  and 
several  kinds  of  palms,  breadfruit,  etc.,  etc.,  and  the  mag- 
nificent green  oranges.  ...  I  am  too  giddy  to  write  so- 
berly about  anything.  I  feel  inclined  to  cut  capers  under 
the  trees  till  I  am  tired,  then  sigh  like  a  hippopotamus 
for  some  one  to  pour  it  all  out  upon,  and  then  lie  down 
and  dream. ' ' 


SOUTH  AMERICA  IN  ENGLISH  PRINT         463 

Mansfield's  relations  with  the  very  varied  types  of 
humanity  with  whom  he  was  brought  into  contact  seem  to 
have  been  most  cordial.  He  stayed  among  the  Fazen- 
deiros  of  Brazil — the  owners  of  slaves  and  sugar  and 
coffee  and  cotton  lands, — with  their  flowered  cotton 
jackets  and  bediamonded  hands,  and  pronounced  them 
trumps.  Arrived  in  the  river  Plate,  armed  with  a  letter 
of  introduction  from  Admiral  Grenfell,  he  went  to  see 
Urquiza,  the  all-powerful  Protector  of  the  river  Plate 
Provinces  of  that  period,  and  after  contrasting  with  some 
dismay  his  own  ancient  garments  with  the  smart  clothes 
of  those  who  now  surrounded  him,  he  found  himself  in 
the  presence  of  *'a  very  respectable  English  farmer-like, 
honest-looking  man,  in  a  neat  blue  uniform  coat  and  white 
waistcoat,  with  a  lot  of  officials  and  applicants  sitting  or 
standing  in  a  row  at  the  side. ' '  Urquiza  received  Mans- 
field most  politely,  and,  having  been  granted  the  freedom 
of  the  great  Argentine  rivers,  Mansfield  bowed  himself 
out,  "thinking  him  really  a  hero  and  a  trump." 

At  the  same  time  it  must  be  said  that  Mansfield's  first 
impressions  of  the  town  of  Buenos  Aires  were  far  from 
favorable.  The  hand  of  man  had  not  yet  embellished  the 
alluvial  flats  of  its  site,  and  the  numbers  of  decaying 
carcasses  of  cattle  which  then  littered  the  outskirts  of  the 
city  were  especially  oifensive  to  so  ardent  a  respecter 
of  animal  life  as  Mansfield. 

Indeed,  existence  for  so  enthusiastic  a  vegetarian  must 
have  presented  a  good  many  problems  in  a  land  where 
the  phenomenal  superabundance  of  butcher's  meat  caused 
the  cultivation  of  vegetables  to  be  almost  entirely 
neglected.  But  no  circumstances  of  mere  physical  dis- 
comfort could  disturb  his  equanimity,  and  it  was  with  his 
unfailing  serenity  that  he  started  in  a  small  sailing  vessel 
up  the  Parana  River  on  the  first  stage  of  his  inland  voy- 
age to  Paraguay. 

The  moment  was  a  notable  one  in  the  history  of  Para- 
guay.    Carlos  Lopez,  the  dictator  of  the  inland  republic. 


464      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

was  about  to  suffer  the  veil  to  be  torn  from  its  frontiers. 
Foreigners  were  at  length  to  be  permitted  to  tread  its 
long-secluded  and  mysterious  soil.  Sir  Charles  Hotham, 
the  British  special  envoy,  and  his  French  colleague  were 
about  to  steam  up  the  rivers  to  Paraguay  in  their  re- 
spective war  vessels  in  order  to  conclude  treaties  with 
the  Government  of  the  hermit  state.  So  Mansfield  un- 
dertook his  journey  in  high  hopes  of  being  one  of  the 
favored  first  to  see  with  their  own  eyes  the  workings  of 
this  beautiful  land  of  seclusion  and  rumor. 

The  journey  to  Corrientes,  the  northernmost  port  of 
Argentina,  where  the  rivers  Paraguay  and  Parana  join 
their  waters,  took  a  month,  during  which  time  Mansfield 
fed  himself  chiefly  on  ship's  biscuits  and  raisins,  dived 
overboard  every  morning  for  his  swim,  notwithstanding 
the  fierce  current  which  occasionally  ran,  and  observed 
all  things  with  an  unfailing  acuteness,  from  the  people, 
landscape,  birds,  beasts,  and  fishes  to  the  bottles  of  Bass's 
pale  ale  and  the  rolls  of  Manchester  cottons  which  already 
lay  by  the  side  of  the  local  brown  sugar  and  yerha  mate 
in  the  recently  erected  stores  on  the  river  bank.  He  was 
a  keenly  interested  spectator,  too,  of  the  games  of  pelota 
— the  river  Plate  fives,  and  considered  that  *'a  Gaucho 
boy  or  two,  turned  loose  on  ball  court  at  Winton,  would 
astonish  a  Wykehamist  a  little." 

At  Corrientes  occurred  a  very  long  halt,  while  President 
Lopez's  permission  to  enter  Paraguay  was  awaited. 
This  period  Mansfield  occupied  in  studying  the  natural 
history  and  botany  of  the  district,  and  in  gazing  across 
the  great  river,  speculating  on  the  inherent  possibilities 
of  the  forests  and  swamps  of  the  opposite  Chaco  bank 
which  the  dread  of  the  untamed  Indians — though  numbers 
of  these  latter  frequently  visited  Corrientes — kept  so  en- 
tirely shut  off  from  the  white  man  that  the  mile  or  so  of 
stream  which  flowed  between  the  two  might  well  have 
been  a  thousand ! 

The  long  period  of  suspense  would  have  been  weari- 


SOUTH  AMERICA  IN  ENGLISH  PRINT         465 

some  enough  for  most  people ;  but  Mansfield's  enthusiasm 
was  sufficient  to  provide  him  with  joys  of  his  own,  as  will 
be  evident  from  the  note  that  rings  in  his  meeting  with 
the  giant  crane,  when  he  saw : 

* '  The  most  magnificent  bird  I  ever  beheld :  he  must  be 
the  king  that  was  sent  down  from  heaven  to  meet  the 
demands  of  the  frogs — a  perfect  emperor  of  cranes.  I 
had  just  been  watching  a  big  heron,  when  I  caught  sight 
of  this  fellow.  At  first  I  thought  he  was  a  cow,  and  then 
that  he  was  a  man;  at  last  I  perceived  that  his  gait  was 
far  too  stately  for  any  biped  but  a  bird,  and  he  let  me 
come  as  close  to  him  as  the  length  of  an  ordinary  room; 
and  he  was  all  snow-white,  except  his  beak  and  his  head 
and  his  neck,  between  the  black  and  white,  which  was  deep 
red;  and  his  beak  was  ponderous,  like  unto  a  pelican's, 
and  full  a  foot  long,  with  a  heavy  lower  jaw.  He  must 
have  stood  five  feet  high  without  his  boots,  and  he  let  me 
look  at  him  ever  so  long,  and  he  stalked  about  quite 
promiscuous;  and  there  was  close  to  him  a  big  white 
heron,  that  looked  quite  small ;  and  as  I  sat  and  wondered, 
he  spread  his  wings,  all  snow-white,  and  sailed  straight 
away  down  south  for  miles  and  miles,  till  the  speck  of 
white  in  the  sky  was  too  small  to  see." 

In  passages  such  as  these  Mansfield  is  an  awkward 
man  to  quote  from,  since  the  difficulty  arises  in  knowing 
where  to  stop. 

Mansfield  had  planned  to  enter  Paraguay  with  two 
friends  of  his,  a  French  diplomat  and  his  wife,  and  even 
after  permission  had  been  received  from  Lopez  the  vaga- 
ries of  these  excellent  but  irresponsible  people  increased 
the  delay.  At  length  he  received  an  intimation  that  his 
companions  would  start  immediately.  Mansfield  explains 
that  he  did  not  believe  it  in  the  least,  but  was  bound  to 
act  as  if  he  did !  However  on  this  occasion  the  alarm  was 
no  false  one,  and  presently  the  party  had  set  out  on  horse- 
back on  its  way  to  Paraguay. 

Mansfield's  description  of  his  costume  is  instructive  in 


466      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

itself.  Among  his  garments  was  a  white  cotton  poncho, 
Manchester  made,  but  Corrientes  bought;  Gaucho  belt 
containing  Spanish  doubloons ;  magnificent  silvery  spurs, 
Buenos  Aires  bought  but  Birmingham  made,  a  water- 
proof Rio-de-Janeiro  bought,  London  made;  and  then 
there  was  his  recado,  his  Gaucho  saddle  of  horse-cloths, 
hides,  and  sheep-fleece — '*a  thing  like  the  back  of  a  huge 
caterpillar,  suddenly  petrified  into  an  enquiring  atti- 
tude." 

So  they  set  off,  across  the  fair  prairies,  woodlands  and 
marshes  of  Corrientes,  poor  Mansfield  bearing  the  burden 
of  Madame 's  parrot  in  its  cage,  that  had  been  transferred 
to  his  uncomplaining  arms  by  the  somewhat  imperious 
lady !  Indeed,  reading  between  the  lines,  there  seems  no 
doubt  that  Mansfield's  kindly  personality  was  made  the 
fullest  use  of  by  Madame  G.,  as  well  as  by  her  stout  hus- 
band, who  always  wore  a  little  sword  by  his  side,  and 
whom  Mansfield  "admired  with  a  great  reverence"  when 
he  set  his  horse  into  a  very  slow  canter. 

At  length  the  party  arrived  at  the  bank  of  the  Alto 
Parana  Eiver,  on  the  further  side  of  which  lay  the  long- 
shrouded  country  of  Paraguay.  Scarcely  had  they  made 
their  appearance  there  when  from  a  little  fort  on  the 
Paraguayan  shore  a  canoe  was  paddled  lustily  across  by 
seven  splendid  specimens  of  manhood,  some  of  which  were 
quite  fair,  and  not  one  of  w^hom  bore  the  slightest  trace 
of  Lidian  blood.  The  men,  says  Mansfield,  were  utterly 
unlike  any  others  he  had  previously  seen  in  South  Amer- 
ica.   Paraguay  had  provided  its  first  surprise ! 

After  this  they  were  ferried  across  in  grand  style,  and 
the  secret  of  their  prompt  reception  was  now  made  evi- 
dent. High  up  in  the  branches  of  a  tree  was  a  look-out 
post  from  which  a  lad  was  watching  continually. 
*'And,"  says  Mansfield,  ''I  presume  he  is  there  still. 
This  is  a  part  of  the  rigid  system  of  vigilance  by  which 
all  intruders  have  been  kept  off  the  coasts  of  the  inland 
Japan. ' ' 


SOUTH  AMERICA  IN  ENGLISH  PRINT         467 

The  Paraguayan  Government,  having  admitted  Mans- 
field and  his  friends,  did  the  thing  handsomely,  and 
treated  them  as  its  guests,  itself  providing  the  horses  and 
men  necessary  for  each  stage  of  the  journey  to  Asuncion, 
the  capital.  It  was  a  queer  world  in  which  the  newcomers 
found  themselves.  The  idyllic  landscape  was  populated 
for  the  most  part  by  soldiers  in  very  smart  and  service- 
able uniforms,  but  barefooted,  the  majority  of  the  officers 
being  likewise  unshod — a  fashion  which  has  always  been 
popular  in  Paraguay  as  much  from  motives  of  choice  as 
from  those  of  economy. 

Some  regiments,  remarks  our  author,  of  these  men — 
for  the  most  part  unusually  fair-skinned — wore  trousers, 
others  the  Gaucho  Calzoncillos  and  Chiripas.  But  when 
off  duty  they  strolled  to  and  fro  almost  in  a  state  of 
nudity. 

Mansfield  was  much  struck  by  the  law  and  order,  neat- 
ness and  cleanliness  that,  under  the  despotism  of  the 
elder  Lopez,  prevailed  in  Paraguay  at  that  period.  It 
was  with  amazement  that  he  contrasted  these  advantages 
of  that  very  remote  state  with  the  contemporary  slovenli- 
ness and  neglect  that  was  all  too  evident  in  Northern  Ar- 
gentina. In  the  long  interval  which  has  elapsed  since 
Mansfield's  visit  these  circumstances  have  tended  to  re- 
verse themselves.  This  would  seem  to  prove  that,  al- 
though autocracy  may  provide  a  short  cut  to  law  and 
order,  the  awkward  and  slow-grinding  wheels  of  democ- 
racy do  their  task  more  thoroughly  in  the  long  run ! 

Some  idea  of  the  manner  in  which  matters  were  carried 
on  in  the  hermit  kingdom  of  Paraguay  may  be  gleaned 
from  the  method  by  which  a  large  lawTi  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  military  headquarters  of  this  frontier  post 
was  kept  spotlessly  tidy.  Five  hundred  men,  explains 
Mansfield,  under  charge  of  their  officers  were  marched  out 
to  pick  up  with  their  fingers  every  spot  of  dirt  and  every 
sign  of  weed,  and  the  gleanings  were  borne  off  on  hides 
stretched  on  poles,  each  carried  by  four  men ! 


468     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

Mansfield's  first  night  in  Paraguay  was  in  its  way  as 
stirring  as  anything  he  could  ever  have  pictured !  Every 
half -hour  the  loud  challenges  of  the  sentinels  rang  round 
the  camp,  and  at  two  o'clock  in  the  morning  a  powerful 
military  band  shattered  the  balmy  night  air  by  a  lengthy 
outpouring  of  stirring  airs.  Now — although  Mansfield 
does  not  appear  to  have  been  aware  of  it — this  seems  to 
me  without  doubt  to  have  been  a  survival  of  the  old 
Paraguayan  Jesuit  Mission  days,  when  drums  and  fifes 
used  to  parade  through  the  settlements  at  night  for  a 
purpose  which  any  one  who  cares  to  study  the  early 
Jesuit  authors  may  learn  for  themselves. 

In  sylvan  Paraguay,  where  cattle  were  less  ubiquitous 
than  in  the  Southern  prairies,  and  where  mandioca  and 
tropical  fruits  and  vegetables  abounded,  Mansfield's  daily 
bill  of  fare  became  comparatively  sumptuous.  Maintain- 
ing the  unbroken  cordiality  of  his  relations  with  the  vari- 
ous officials  and  others  with  whom  he  came  into  contact, 
he,  accompanied  by  his  French  friends,  completed  the 
journey  to  Asuncion  almost  without  incident.  On  his 
arrival  there  he  found  that  the  first  foreign  trading 
steamer  to  enter  the  port  had  dropped  anchor  on  the 
previous  day ! 

In  Asuncion,  Mansfield  continued  to  wonder  at  the  pro- 
portion of  fair-haired  and  fair-skinned  people,  notwith- 
standing the  fact  that  the  Guarani  Indian  strain  largely 
predominated  in  the  population  and  that  the  Guarani 
tongue  was  the  general  speech  of  the  country. 

Mansfield  settled  himself  down  with  his  rare  and  en- 
thusiastic intelligence  to  study  the  curious  and  romantic 
capital,  its  surroundings,  inhabitants,  and  the  intricacies 
of  the  Guarani  tongue.  Soon  after  his  arrival  H.M.S. 
Locust  steamed  up,  and  Sir  Charles  Hotham,  the  British 
envoy,  landed  in  order  to  recognize  officially  on  the  part 
of  his  Government  the  independence  of  Paraguay,  and  to 
draw  up  a  treaty  of  commerce  between  that  nation  and 
Great  Britain. 


SOUTH  AMERICA  IN  ENGLISH  PRINT         469 

Mansfield  had  already  been  introduced  to  the  family  of 
Carlos  Lopez,  the  dictator  of  Paraguay,  and  among  the 
rest  had  met  young  Francisco  Solano  Lopez,  who  some 
fifteen  years  later  was  destined  to  plunge  central  South 
America  into  an  ocean  of  blood.  His  description  of  the 
ball  given  by  Hotham  in  honor  of  the  diplomatic  occasion 
— a  function  at  which  those  humble  folk  who  were  not  ad- 
mitted congregated  outside,  and  thrust  their  naked  legs 
into  the  ballroom  through  the  bars  of  the  windows,  hold- 
ing on  to  the  upper  part  with  their  arms — is  worth  giving 
in  full: 

''I  was  riding  along  the  street  yesterday,  near  the 
square  in  which  the  government  buildings  are,  and  heard 
a  precious  firing  of  rockets  and  viva-ing.     Behold !     The 
people  were  carrying  the  portrait  of  the  President  from 
the  Cabildo  to  the  ballroom;  the  noise  was  adulation  of 
the  effigy.    In  the  evening  he  came  to  the  ball ;  he  arrived 
a  few  minutes  before  I  did,  so  I  lost  the  sight  of  his 
entry ;  when  I  came  he  was  sitting  in  an  armchair  at  the 
end  of  the  room  in  a  magnificent  uniform,  with  a  huge 
gold-headed  cane  in  his  hand :  there  he  sat  for  about  two 
hours,  the  most  perfect  picture  of  pompous  good  humor ; 
on  his  right  sat  his  wife,  like  any  queen.     I  did  not  notice 
a  single  Paraguayan  except  his  wife  and  his  son  (a  young 
lad  of  twenty  or  so,  the  general  of  the  army)  go  near  him. 
The  representatives  of  the  foreign  powers  that  are  here 
went  up  and  saluted  him  as  they  came  in ;  he  stood  up  to 
shake  hands  with  Sir  C.  Hotham,  an  honor  which  he  also 
accorded  to  the  Brazilian  minister,  but  to  no  one  else.     I 
went  up  with  two  other  Englishmen  and  made  obeisance 
to  him,  at  which  he  looked  highly  pleased ;  I  do  not  think 
any  one  else  went  near.     Two  gentlemen,  Argentines,  ac- 
tually danced  a  solo  before  him,  intended  for  and  called 
an  English  hornpipe.    At  last,  about  ten  p.m.  (the  ball 
was  opened  at  eight,  by  his  son  dancing  with  his  daugh- 
ter) he  rose  and  walked  out  of  the  room,  amidst  the  ob- 
sequious bows  of  some  and  the  retreating  of  others ;  and 


470     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

as  he  departed  under  shouts  of  'Viva  la  Republican  del 
Paraguay!'  'Viva  el  excelentisimo  Senor  Presidente!* 
the  stiffness  suddenly  relaxed,  a  hum  of  talk  pervaded 
the  room,  the  good-natured  Presidente  burst  into  a  bland 
smile  and  swept  into  the  seat  just  vacated  by  her  husband, 
and  there  she  sat  without  moving,  except  once  to  go  and 
take  refreshments,  till  the  end." 

Half  a  century  and  more  ago  a  president  of  Paraguay 
was  worth  an  emperor  of  decadent  Rome  and  a  Chinese 
mandarin  put  together! 

But  we  have  no  space  to  follow  Mansfield  and  his  de- 
lightful reflections  any  longer.  They  are  plain  enough  to 
read  in  his  book,  which  is  just  over  sixty  years  old. 
Moved  by  a  sudden  impulse,  he  determined  to  return  to 
England,  so  he  took  a  cordial  farewell  of  President  Lopez, 
and  made  a  bargain  for  his  voyage  downstream  with  a 
ship's  captain,  who  at  the  time  of  the  compact  happened 
to  be  in  the  guardhouse  with  his  feet  in  the  stocks — no 
uncommon  position  even  for  the  most  blameless  and  wor- 
thy people  in  Paraguay  of  the  mid-nineteenth  century ! 

Only  one  incident  of  Mansfield's  downstream  voyage 
need  be  referred  to  here.  Having  just  left  the  land 
of  a  despot  in  the  full  flush  of  his  power  he  was  fated 
during  his  halt  of  a  few  hours  at  the  Argentine  town 
of  Parana  to  pick  up  a  link  with  the  destiny  of  another 
autocrat,  one  who  had  been  banished,  and  was  living  in 
retirement  in  England — Rosas  of  Argentina.  It  is  only 
a  passing  remark  that  Mansfield  makes  on  the  subject,  but 
to  one  acquainted  with  the  affairs  of  Rosas,  and  his 
charming  daughter  Dona  Manuelita,  who  is  said  to  have 
exercised  so  strong  an  influence  over  the  British  minister, 
it  is  significant  enough.  The  British  minister.  Captain 
Gore,  happened  to  be  on  a  visit  at  Parana,  and  Mansfield 
took  the  opportunity  of  calling  on  him.  Just  as  he  was 
embarking  again  Captain  Gore  came  down  to  the  beach 
on  horseback.     Would  Mansfield  call  on  the  Rosas  when 


SOUTH  AMERICA  IN  ENGLISH  PRINT         471 

he  got  back  to  England,  he  asked,  and  tell  Manuelita  that 
he  had  seen  him  on  her  horse? 

Sheer  gossip,  this,  of  course.  But  it  is  not  Mansfield 
himself  who  tells  the  tale  in  gossipy  fashion — how  could 
he,  in  the  three  and  a  half  lines  he  devotes  to  the  episode! 
— and  if  any  one  is  to  be  hauled  over  the  coals  for  dis- 
seminating mild  scandal,  it  is  not  Mansfield,  with  his  head 
high  up  among  the  incurious  stars,  but  the  mundane 
author  of  these  notes !  With  this  final  vindication  of  his 
character  we  may  take  a  reluctant  leave  of  Mansfield. 

After  this,  I  fear,  unreasonably  lengthy  devotion  of 
space  to  the  affairs  of  a  single  author,  we  must  of  neces- 
sity return  to  skimpier  notices. 

Just  about  this  period  it  may  be  said  that  there  were 
issued  a  certain  number  of  notable  North  American  pub- 
lications on  South  Ajiierica.  One  of  these  is  a  very  com- 
prehensive and  finely  produced  work,  describing:  *'The 
United  States  Naval  Astronomical  Expedition  to  the 
Southern  Hemisphere,  Chile,"  by  Lieutenant  J.  M.  Gil- 
liss,  United  States  Navy,  which  saw  the  light  in  1856. 

In  the  same  year  Thomas  Ewbank  wrote  a  full  and  val- 
uable account  of  Brazil  in  its  mid-imperial  days:  "Life 
in  Brazil,  or  the  Land  of  the  Cocoa  and  the  Palm,  with  an 
Appendix,  containing  Illustrations  of  Ancient  South 
American  Arts,"  etc. 

The  following  year  was  published  in  Washington  by 
0.  P.  Kidder  and  J.  C.  Fletcher  a  notable  book,  the  title 
of  which  will  speak  for  itself:  "Brazil  and  the  Brazilians, 
portrayed  in  Historical  and  Descriptive  Sketches. ' '  This 
work,  by  two  very  observant  North  American  mission- 
aries, which  gave  an  unusually  clear  insight  into  the  Bra- 
zilian life  of  that  time,  ran  into  many  editions,  and  I  can- 
not be  quite  positive  that  the  date  of  the  one  I  have  given 
is  the  first.  But  in  any  case  the  book  must  be  classed  as 
one  of  the  fullest  and  most  valuable  of  those  which  deal 
with  the  life  and  manners  of  the  Brazilian  Empire. 


472     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

A  third  volume  which  may  complete  this  particular 
series  in  James  Wetherell's  ''Stray  Notes  from  Bahia: 
Being  Extracts  from  Letters,  etc.,  during  a  Residence  of 
Fifteen  Years."  (1860.) 

One  of  the  most  valuable  contributions  of  this  period 
to  the  literature  on  the  little-known  State  of  Paraguay 
was  the  work  of  an  American  naval  officer,  Thomas  J. 
Page,  who  steamed  up  to  Asuncion  in  his  warship,  the 
Waterwitch.  This  very  complete  study  is  entitled:  "La 
Plata,  the  Argentine  Confederation,  and  Paraguay." 

In  1859  was  published  an  edition  (whether  the  first  or 
not,  I  am  unable  to  say,)  of  the  great  Cochrane 's  mem- 
oirs: *' Narrative  of  Services  in  the  Liberation  of  Chili, 
Peru,  and  Brazil,  from  Spanish  and  Portuguese  Domi- 
nation" (1817-25). 

A  volume  which  contains  a  rather  unusual  wealth  of 
information  is  one  published  by  William  Bollaert  in  1860 : 
"Antiquarian,  Ethnological,  and  other  Researches  in 
New  Granada,  Equador,  Peru,  and  Chile."  This  book  is 
primarily  concerned  with  the  etymology,  lore,  rock-sculp- 
ture, arts,  and  customs  of  the  Incas  and  Chibchas.  But 
beyond  this  its  unusually  wide  scope  of  subjects  includes 
a  survey  of  the  modern  Indian  tribes  of  the  north  of  the 
continent;  travels  from  the  northernmost  coast  to  Cape 
Horn  and  the  Magellan  Straits,  a  useful  gazetteer  of 
many  districts,  a  study  of  the  conditions  of  mining  and 
other  industries,  and  the  records  of  some  pioneer  survey- 
ing carried  out  in  Tarapaca. 

In  the  1860 's,  when  the  commercial  possibilities  of  the 
countries  of  the  river  Plate  were  becoming  evident,  a  con- 
siderable number  of  volumes  were  issued  on  this  subject. 

A  most  prolific  writer  of  this  period  was  Thomas  J. 
Hutchinson,  who,  in  his  "Journey  through  the  Salado 
Valley,"  covers  most  subjects  from  farms  to  fortifica- 
tions, and  whose  portrait  is  presented  in  another  of  his 
works — "Two  Years  in  Peru" — as  an  Inca  monarch 
crowned  with  the  imperial  "llauta" — and  this  notwith- 


SOUTH  AMERICA  IN  ENGLISH  PRINT         473 

standing  his  spreading  beard,  of  which  hirsute  appendage 
the  Incas  were  entirely  innocent ! 

A  most  instructive  volume  of  this  author's,  published 
in  1865,  is  ''Buenos  Aires  and  Argentine  Gleanings," 
which  describes  in  great,  and  frequently  picturesque,  de- 
tail the  life,  landscape,  and  industries  of  Argentina  as 
they  were  at  that  date. 

Important  though  this  contribution  was  to  the  contem- 
porary knowledge  of  the  southeastern  portion  of  the  con- 
tinent, it  was  outweighed  in  many  respects  in  the  follow- 
ing year  by  Wilfred  Latham's  ''The  States  of  the  River 
Plate."  Mr.  Latham  does  not  write  as  a  traveler;  his 
graphic  descriptions  are  those  of  a  land  which  he  had 
made  his  home.  When  he  describes  the  Campo,  it  is  as 
a  practical  "camp"  man,  part  of  whose  every-day  life  it 
was  to  ride  side  by  side  with  the  Gauchos.  As  an  expert 
in  livestock  his  book  is  filled  with  hints  which  were  of 
great  value  at  the  time,  and  some  of  which  are  even  now 
not  out  of  date.  Time  has  since  proved  the  soundness 
of  Latham's  judgment.  For  instance,  although  his  work 
appeared  a  considerable  while  before  the  days  of  meat 
freezing  or  chilling,  he  clearly  foresaw  some  process  of 
the  kind,  and  prophesied  the  tremendous  importance  that 
river  Plate  livestock  was  destined  to  assume  in  the  world, 
and  the  extraordinary  movement  in  the  breeds  which 
would  one  day  tread  the  plains. 

Yes,  it  is  obvious  to  one  who  peruses  Latham's  pages 
that  the  author  leans  over  and  speaks  from  his  saddle, 
as  it  were.  But  he  does  more  than  tell  his  reader  how 
to  run  a  mid-nineteenth  century  estancia,  how  to  treat 
cattle  and  sheep,  and  of  what  climatic  perils  and  vege- 
table pests  to  beware.  He  describes  to  the  life  the  loves 
and  hatreds,  sports  and  duels,  the  gambling  bouts  and 
songs,  of  the  Gaucho. 

Now  and  again  he  grows  cliatty  and  tells  an  anecdote 
such  as  the  one  which  he  says  was  current  in  a  certain 
district  in  Entre  Rios.    I  will  give  it  here : 


474      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

''A  true  specimen  of  the  Gaucbo  par  excellence,  dis- 
mounting at  the  hut  of  a  conocedo  (acquaintance)  found 
him  writhing  and  groaning  under  the  most  violent  rheu- 
matic pain.  The  fellow  looked  commiseratingly  on  the 
suffering  friend,  and  ejaculating,  'Povrecito,  povrecito!' 
(poor  fellow,  poor  fellow!),  gently  took  him  by  the  beard 
with  one  hand,  and  coolly  drawing  his  knife  with  the  oth- 
er, passed  the  sharp  edge  across  his  suffering  friend's 
throat,  and  put  him  out  of  his  misery ;  then,  commending 
him  to  the  'Virgen,'  took  his  departure,  satisfied  with 
having  performed  a  humane  act." 

Perhaps  it  requires  one  acquainted  with  the  character 
of  the  now  almost  extinct  Gaucho  proper  fully  to  appre- 
ciate this  story. 

Latham's  account  of  the  scenes  which  occurred  at  Bue- 
nos Aires — where  he  happened  to  be  at  the  time — after 
the  fall  of  the  Dictator  Rosas,  is  an  invaluable  one.  He 
explains  the  part  played  by  the  patrols  of  combined  Ar- 
gentines and  British  in  suppressing  the  temporary  disor- 
der which  arose,  and  describes  a  meeting  between  one  of 
these  patrols,  of  which  he  formed  a  member,  and  a  gang 
of  brigands.  This  occurred  just  outside  his  own  house, 
and  at  the  critical  moment  Latham  was  astonished  to 
hear  the  treble  shouts  of  his  two  very  small  daughters: 
*' Shoot  'em  dead.  Papa — shoot  'em  dead!" 

Finally,  when  the  liberal  regime  of  Argentina  set  in  in 
earnest,  Latham  appears  to  have  been  of  real  service  in 
mediating  between  the  Argentine  government  and  a  some- 
what hasty  and  tactless  British  consul,  as  well  as  assist- 
ing to  settle  other  matters  in  which  the  conflicting  inter- 
ests of  foreigners  were  concerned. 

To  turn  to  Peru — and  back  a  couple  of  years — we  come 
across  a  couple  of  volumes  which  are  sufficiently  eloquent 
as  to  the  disturbed  condition  of  the  country  at  the  time. 
The  first  is  by  Captain  Melville  White:  ''Britons  Robbed, 
Tortured,  and  Murdered  in  Peru"  (1862) ;  the  second,  a 
year  later,  by  Henry  de  Wolfe  Carvell,  deals  with  other 


SOUTH  AMERICA  IN  ENGLISH  PRINT         475 

outrages,  and  with  the  insecurity  of  British  property  in 
Peru  which  prevailed  at  the  time. 

Two  years  later  again  was  published  a  very  notable 
book  by  Viscount  Bury:  ''The  Exodus  of  the  Western 
Nations,"  which  illustrates  fully  and  adequately  the  trend 
of  the  European  toward  the  southern,  as  well  as  the 
northern,  part  of  the  Americas. 

One  of  the  grimmest  tragedies  of  South  American  his- 
tory, the  Paraguayan  war,  was  responsible  for  a  certain 
number  of  books,  principally  from  the  pens  of  those  who 
had  been  caught  in  the  toils  of  the  struggle,  and,  like  the 
Paraguayans  themselves,  had  suffered  at  the  hands  of 
the  merciless  Francisco  Solano  Lopez. 

Two  important  volumes  of  the  kind  were  ' '  Seven  Event- 
ful Years  in  Paraguay,"  by  Gr.  F.  Masterton,  and  ^'The 
Paraguayan  War,"  by  George  Thompson,  both  of  which 
were  published  in  1869.  Sir  Thomas  Hutchinson  also  re- 
fers to  this  subject  in  1868  in  his  "The  Parana;  with  In- 
cidents of  the  Paraguayan  War  and  South  American 
Recollections." 

Sir  Richard  Burton  as  a  writer  on  South  America, 
comes,  of  course,  within  the  same  group  as  Southey,  Car- 
lyle,  and  other  famous  men,  whose  connection  with  the 
southern  continent  was  somewhat  apart  from  the  main 
trend  of  their  careers. 

Burton's  genius,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  seemed  to  assim- 
ilate less  with  the  verdurous  new  Western  world  than 
with  the  parched  and  mystic  East.  In  1869  he  published : 
' '  Exploration  of  the  Highlands  of  Brazil :  with  a  Full  Ac- 
count of  the  Gold  and  Diamond  Mines.  Also  Canoeing 
down  1500  Miles  of  the  Great  River  Sao  Francisco  from 
Sabana  to  the  Sea."  This  was  followed  in  1870  by  "Let- 
ters from  the  Battle-Fields  of  Paraguay." 

Both  of  these  volumes,  of  course,  cannot  fail  to  possess 
a  certain  interest  of  their  own.  Yet  it  is  obvious  from 
tlieir  pages  that  the  Burton  of  South  America  is  not  the 
Richard  Burton,  the  household  word,  of  the  East.     At  the 


476     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

same  time  it  must  be  said  that  Burton,  when  consul  at 
Santos,  gave  some  clear  indications  of  the  bent  which  was 
to  lead  him  so  far  in  the  Orient  in  his  excellent  notes  and 
annotations  of  the  translation  of  Hans  Stade's  Captivity, 
published  by  the  Hakluyt  Society  in  1874. 

From  the  British  point  of  view.  South  America  has 
lacked  its  Fenimore  Cooper — speaking  at  hazard,  I  do 
not  think  that  a  writer  of  the  kind  exists  even  in  the  Cas- 
tilian  tongue — but  the  hostile  Indian  adventures  of  the 
outlying  British  settlers  in  Argentina  have  been  fre- 
quently described  by  themselves. 

Instances  of  this  are  to  be  met  with  in  such  volumes 
as  ''Pioneering  in  the  Pampas,"  by  Richard  Arthur  Sey- 
mour, published  in  1869,  which  graphically  describe  the 
Indian  raids  on  the  new  estancias,  incursions  which  left 
several  British  homesteads  smoldering  and  ownerless. 

Before  closing  the  first  section  of  the  English  litera- 
ture dealing  with  South  America,  we  must  go  back  a  year 
to  deal  with  the  translation  in  1868  by  Mrs.  Horace  Mann 
of  a  notable  work  by  a  brilliant  Argentine  author,  and  a 
prominent  personage  of  that  nation,  Domingo  F.  Sar- 
miento:  "Life  in  the  Argentine  Republic  in  the  Days  of 
the  Tyrants ;  or.  Civilization  and  Barbarism. ' '  The  title 
of  the  book  speaks  for  itself.  Its  pages,  it  is  true,  deal 
with  controversial  matter,  and  many  of  the  statements 
are  keenly  disputed ;  but  as  a  study  of  Argentina  in  her 
early  desperate  political  throes  the  work  is  of  absorbing 
interest. 

In  this  same  year  was  published  a  book  which,  although 
interesting  and  pleasant  enough  in  itself,  is  so  thoroughly 
sketchy  and  inaccurate  in  its  detail  as  to  recall  in  parts 
a  twentieth  century  article  which  a  victimized  London 
magazine  perpetrated  on  South  American  affairs,  and 
which  gravely  gave  out  as  endearing  terms  certain  South 
American  epithets,  which  were  not  only  unpolished,  but 
quite  unspeakable  in  normal  society. 

This  racy  production  is  "A  Long  Vacation  in  the  Ar- 


SOUTH  AMERICA  IN  ENGLISH  PRINT         477 

gentine  Alps,"  by  H.  C.  Eoss  Johnson.  In  justice  to  the 
author  it  must  be  explained  that  his  solecisms  are  mostly 
concerned  with  his  rendering  of  Spanish  phrases.  But 
in  this  he  is  unusually  thorough,  for  it  is  not  every  one 
who  can  misspell  four  words  out  of  a  sentence  of  five! 
Mr.  Johnson  shows  how  efficiently  this  can  be  done  by 
taking  a  phrase  which  he  gives  in  English  as,  *^Don 
Henry,  do  you  wish  coffee?"  and  by  turning  it  into  the 
following  alleged  Castilian:  "Don  Enriques,  query  U 
caffef"  To  those  ignorant  of  the  mellow  Southern 
tongue  it  may  be  explained  that  the  first  word  alone  here 
is  correctly  spelled — and,  if  one  comes  to  think  it  over, 
it  seems  almost  impossible  to  spell  "Don"  any  other  way ! 

In  view  of  these  peculiarities,  it  is  perhaps  fortunate 
that  the  greater  part  of  the  book  is  in  the  lighter  vein. 
Nevertheless  it  contains  many  pages  of  interest  dealing 
with  the  subtropical  Argentine  province  of  Catamarca, 
ground  which  was  at  the  time  very  seldom  visited  by  any 
but  Argentines,  and  which,  so  far  as  foreigners  were 
concerned,  was  almost  unknown. 

When  we  arrive  at  modern  days  there  are  obviously 
many  difficulties  which  confront  the  compiler  of  work 
such  as  this.  The  task  of  choosing  the  most  suitable 
from  out  of  the  host  of  contemporary  writers  would  be  a 
thankless  one.  There  are,  of  course,  many  names  which 
leap  to  the  eye  at  once — such  as  Lord  Bryce,  R.  B.  Cun- 
ninghame  Graham,  W.  H.  Hudson,  Sir  Martin  Conway, 
and  the  very  recently  deceased  Sir  Clements  Markham. 
All  these  are  distinguished  in  other  respects  beyond  their 
writings  on  South  America.  But  there  are  many  others 
too,  some  of  whose  works  may,  with  greater  or  lesser 
justice,  claim  to  rank  in  importance  somewhere  in  the 
near  neighborhood  of  those  above. 

The  only  satisfactory  way  out  of  the  difficulty,  it  seems 
to  me,  is  to  refuse  to  make  a  choice  at  all,  and  to  add  to 
this  volume  an  appendix  in  the  shape  of  a  bibliography 
of  works  on  South  America  from  the  year  1870  to  the 


478      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

present  day.  This  I  have  done,  and  it  only  remains  to 
hope  that  the  inevitable  accidental  omissions  in  such  an 
attempt  may  not  be  too  numerous. 

In  this  first  section  dealing  with  the  books  on  South 
America  I  will  follow  the  same  course  as  that  adopted 
elsewhere  in  the  book,  and  will  keep  the  publications  on 
British  Guiana  and  the  Falkland  Islands  to  themselves. 
Dealing  as  they  do  with  British  Possessions,  it  seems  to 
me  that  they  should  naturally  come  within  a  different 
category  to  those  written  by  British  authors  on  foreign 
lands. 

The  first  comparatively  modern  book  of  importance  to 
be  mentioned  is  "An  Essay  on  the  Natural  History  of 
Guiana,  in  South  America, ' '  which  was  published  in  1769, 
and  its  author  Edward  Bancroft  deserves  a  few  words 
to  himself.  Born  in  Massachusetts  in  1744,  Bancroft 
took  up  the  study  of  medicine,  and  in  1763  he  settled  in 
Guiana.  Later,  when  war  broke  out  between  England 
and  her  North  American  colonies,  Bancroft  acted  for 
Franklin  as  a  spy  in  London,  and  was  suspected  of  com- 
plicity in  the  attempt  to  burn  Portsmouth  Dockyard.  He 
turned  king's  evidence,  however,  and  does  not  appear  to 
have  left  England  again,  dying  at  Margate  in  1821. 

In  his  book — which  contains  a  general  description  of 
the  natural  history,  anthropology,  and  botany  of  Guiana 
— Bancroft,  for  an  eighteenth  century  naturalist,  is  curi- 
ously restrained.  If  his  accuracy  may  be  questioned  at 
times,  it  is  never  on  account  of  those  reckless  flights  of 
imagination  in  which  many  of  his  colleagues  were  wont 
to  indulge.  Indeed,  Bancroft  does  not  claim  too  much 
for  himself  when  he  says  that  "I  shall  next  proceed  to 
acquaint  you  with  its  (Guiana's)  vegetable  and  animal 
productions,  in  a  simple,  but,  I  hope,  intelligible  language, 
avoiding  all  embellishments  of  stile,  which,  in  subjects  of 
this  mature,  are  incompatible  with  perspicuity." 

The  severity  ot  Bancroft's  work  reduces  it  almost  to 
the  nature  of  a  naturalist's  dictionary,  and,  although  he 


SOUTH  AMERICA  IN  ENGLISH  PRINT         479 

does  hold  that  the  abundance  of  snakes  ought  to  ''humble 
the  pride  and  arrogance  of  man,  by  convincing  him,  that 
all  things  are  not  made  obedient  to  his  will,  nor  created 
for  his  use,"  and  although  he  has  this  to  say  with  some 
feeling  about  the  chigger,  that  it  "is  a  small  dusky  insect 
resembling  a  flea,  but  somewhat  smaller,  and  happily  it 
is  incapable  of  leaping,  or  the  Torrid  Zone  would  be  un- 
inhabitable," such  opinions  are  rare  enough  in  his  pages. 

One  of  the  most  curious  of  the  eighteenth  century  vol- 
umes on  Guiana  is  Captain  J.  G.  Stedman's  "Narrative 
of  a  Five  Years'  Expedition  against  the  Revolted  Ne- 
groes of  Surinam  in  Guiana,  on  the  Wild  Coast  of  South 
America,  from  the  year  1772  to  1777."  This  was  pub- 
lished toward  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  (the  au- 
thor's copy  is  dated  1796)  and  is  provided  with  some 
finely  reproduced  but  most  curious  illustrations,  some  of 
the  natural  history  plates  being  unwittingly,  but  irresisti- 
bly, comic. 

Among  other  volumes  on  British  Guiana  is  Henry  Bol- 
ingbroke's  "Voyage  to  the  Demerary,  containing  a  Sta- 
tistical Account  of  the  Settlements  there,  and  of  Those  on 
the  Essequebo,  the  Berbice,  and  Other  Contiguous  Rivers 
of  Guayana."  (1807).  Bolingbroke,  it  may  be  said,  was 
deputy  vendue  master  in  Surinam  for  six  years. 

Another  is  Dr.  John  Hancock's  "Observations  on  the 
Climate,  Soil,  and  Productions  of  British  Guiana,  and  on 
the  Advantages  of  Emigration  to  .  .  .  that  Country;  to- 
gether with  Incidental  Remarks  on  the  Diseases,  their 
Treatment  and  Prevention,"  etc.     (1835.) 

In  1841  was  published  "Twelve  Views  in  the  Interior 
of  Guiana,  from  Drawings  by  Charles  Bentley,"  a  work 
which  contains  a  notably  handsome  collection  of  colored 
plates,  and  the  letter-press  of  which  was  supplied  by  Sir 
Robert  H.  Schomburgk. 

Just  twenty  years  later  was  published  a  fairly  com- 
prehensive volume  by  W.  H.  Brett:  "The  Indian  Tribes 
of  Guiana,  their  Condition  and  Habits,  with  Researches 


480     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

into  their  Past  History,  Superstitions,  Legends,  Antiqui- 
ties, Languages." 

In  1855,  H.  G.  Dalton  wrote  a  '' History  of  British  Gui- 
ana .  .  .  together  with  an  Account  of  its  Climate,  Geol- 
ogy, Staple  Products,  and  Natural  History." 

Another  work:  *'E1  Dorado,  or  British  Guiana  as  a 
Field  for  Colonization,"  was  written  by  the  Eev.  W.  T. 
Veness  in  1866. 

The  Falkland  Islands  were  fairly  fully  described  in 
1789,  when  was  published  the  ''Voyage  round  the  World 
.  .  .  performed  in  1785  and  1788  in  the  King  George  and 
Queen  Charlotte,  Captains  Portlock  and  Dixon." 

A  slender  but  very  useful  book  on  the  islands  was  writ- 
ten by  G.  T.  Whitington  in  1840.  This  contains  a  descrip- 
tion of  the  islands  and  an  urgent  appeal  for  their  coloni- 
zation. In  the  same  year  L.  B.  Mackinnon  published 
"Some  account  of  the  Falkland  Islands,  from  a  Six 
Months'  Residence  in  1838  and  1839." 

Beyond  this,  numerous  books  dealing  with  Argentina 
provide  descriptions  of  the  Falkland  Islands. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

ACHIEVEMENTS    OF    THE    BRITISH    IN    THE    NINETEENTH 
CENTURY    (l) 

Great  Britain  as  a  Source  of  Capital — Some  Ethics  of  Partnership — Roles 
played  by  the  British  in  the  Development  of  South  America — The 
nearest  approach  to  a  mining  rush — The  Nitrate  Industry — Discov- 
ery and  early  vicissitudes  of  the  Commodity — The  Chilean  Coalfields 
— Pioneers  in  Banking  and  Finance — Various  British  Communities  in 
the  Continent — Their  Populations — Description  of  a  Northern  Burial 
Groimd — Ecclesiastical  and  Educational  Establishments — Some  Irish 
Institutions — Father  Fahy — Success  of  the  Communities — The  Brit- 
ish in  Uruguay — Some  Curiosities  in  Castilian — British  Missionary 
Enterprise — Captain  Allen  Gardiner — The  South  American  Mission- 
ary Society — Fields  of  tha  Work — Mr.  W.  Barbrooke  Grubb — His 
achievements  among  the  Lengua  Indians — The  Rev.  R.  J.  Hunt — Work 
of  the  Society  in  Southern  Chile — The  Dioceses  of  South  America — 
Support  of  various  Chaplaincies — Schools  and  Institutions — An  Ex- 
tract from  Hadfleld — Mr.  Morris'  work  in  Buenos  Aires — Its  success. 

IT  has  been  said  by  some  that  the  great  amount  of  capi- 
tal which  Great  Britain  began  to  pour  into  South 
America  at  the  time  of  the  War  of  Liberation,  and 
which  she  has  ceaselessly  continued  to  provide  from  that 
day  to  this,  had  the  effect  of  bringing  into  being  that 
which  was  virtually  a  financial  dominion  over  the  South- 
ern continent.  But,  regarded  from  the  practical  point  of 
view,  this  alleged  financial  dominion  has  surely  proved  no 
more  than  an  equitable  expectation  that  the  borrower 
should  fulfil  his  half  of  the  bargain  toward  the  lender — 
an  expectation  that,  allowing  for  the  vicissitudes  insep- 
arable from  humanity,  has  been  amply  fulfilled. 

The  more  emotional  of  the  South  Americans — and  they 
are  not  alone  in  this! — are  not  inclined  to  use  a  minor 
and  muflfled  key  in  giving  voice  to  such  grievances  as  it 
may  fall  to  their  lot  to  bear.    But  never,  I  think,  has  any 

481 


482      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

responsible  statesman  out  of  any  of  the  ten  republics  of 
the  continent  accused  the  British  of  having  acted  as  usur- 
ers, or,  indeed,  in  any  other  manner,  but  as  partners  in 
the  development  of  their  lands  and  industries.  Robbed 
of  all  sentiment — and  in  this  instance  sentiment  is  un- 
doubtedly present — the  position  may  be  put  in  a  nutshell 
— that  which  has  paid  the  one  has  paid  the  other.  The 
finest  political  economist  may  seek  for  a  thousand  years 
in  vain  to  improve  on  this  very  simple  situation ! 

It  is  an  obvious  platitude  to  assert  that  in  South  Amer- 
ica the  British  have  interested  themselves  chiefly  in  those 
branches  of  industry  in  which  they  themselves  were 
strongest.  Broadly  speaking,  these  were  finance,  urban 
and  port  enterprise,  traffic,  and  agriculture,  this  last  in- 
cluding the  pastoral  industry. 

It  was  with  finance  that  the  South  American  field  was 
first  entered,  for  in  the  middle  of  the  War  of  Liberation 
Great  Britain — having  in  conjunction  with  the  United 
States  already  supplied  the  insurgent  forces  with  arms 
and  munitions — made  financial  advances  in  the  shape  of 
war  loans  to  several  of  the  young  and  struggling  states. 

We  have  already  seen  how,  at  the  victorious  conclusion 
of  the  War  of  Liberation  the  British  public,  with  more 
enthusiasm  than  judgment,  rushed  into  a  mining  boom 
which  ended  disastrously  for  their  pockets.  Since  that 
period  the  number  of  authentic  mines  which  have  been 
worked  by  British  capital,  from  the  North  of  the  continent 
to  the  far  South,  is  far  too  important  to  be  dealt  with 
here.  A  perusal  of  the  stock  and  share  lists  of  the 
various  periods  will  reveal  the  condition  of  the  successful 
ventures,  and  from  time  to  time  the  gaps  in  these  printed 
lists  will  reveal  the  casualties  in  the  shape  of  failures. 

Only  on  one  occasion  does  South  America  appear  to 
have  been  threatened  with  a  mining  rush  of  the  kind  that 
occurred  in  California,  Australia,  and  the  Klondyke.  The 
spot  that  was  on  the  eve  of  being  invaded  by  untold  thou- 


IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  483 

sands  of  mineral  seekers  was  in  a  remote  district  of  the 
great  river  system  of  Brazil.  . 

About  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  there  was 
a  report  of  the  existence  of  gold  on  the  Upper  Maranon. 
The  rumor  proved  to  be  a  false  one,  but  it  had  the  effect 
of  attracting  to  the  district  a  number  of  British  and 
North  American  '^ diggers,"  some  of  them  of  as  wild  an 
order  as  any  that  ever  graced  a  mining  camp.  When  one 
or  two  of  these,  straying  in  aimless  disappointment  along 
the  great  rivers,  came  into  collision  with  some  of  the 
least  tractable  of  the  Indians,  sanguinary  scenes  were 
wont  to  ensue.  The  period  of  these  disturbances,  how- 
ever, was  short,  for  the  newcomers,  when  once  satisfied 
as  to  the  absence  of  the  rumored  gold,  made  their  visits 
as  brief  as  possible. 

The  interest  taken  by  the  British  in  the  nitrate  indus- 
try of  the  Pacific  Coast  was  at  the  least  as  relatively  im- 
portant as  that  shown  in  general  mining,  and  the  part 
played  in  this  by  Colonel  North  and  his  colleagues  and 
successors  is  a  matter  of  general  knowledge. 

Tradition  has  it  that  the  first  discovery  of  the  nitrate 
which  has  brought  so  much  wealth  to  Chile  and  England, 
was — like  that  of  even  greater  forces — due  to  an  acci- 
dent. It  is  said  that  a  woodcutter  numed  Negreros,  hav- 
ing made  a  fire  in  the  Pampa  de  Tamarugal,  found  to  his 
amazement  that  the  heated  ground  began  to  melt,  and 
to  run  downhill  like  a  stream !  On  examination,  the  soil 
was  found  to  be  nitrate  of  soda. 

It  is  said  too  that  the  existence  of  nitrate  was  known 
in  Europe  as  early  as  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury. In  1820  a  certain  quantity  was  sent  to  England; 
but  its  reception  there  was  decidedly  a  cold  one ;  for,  dis- 
mayed at  the  amount  of  duty  demanded  on  it,  its  owners 
flung  it  overboard.  In  1830  a  consignment  sent  to  Liver- 
pool failed  to  find  a  buyer.  However,  after  that  the  true 
value  of  the  article  began  to  be  appreciated,  for  between 


484      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

the  years  1830  and  1850,  240,000  tons  were  exported.  Mr. 
George  Smith,  it  appears,  was  one  of  the  first  nitrate  re- 
finers, and  one  of  the  most  enthusiastic  supporters  of  this 
industry.  In  1828  he  undertook,  in  company  with  Mr. 
William  Bollaert,  a  survey  of  the  nitrate  province  of 
Tarapaca  at  the  request  of  the  Peruvian  Government, 
and  from  this  period  his  interest  seems  to  have  been  un- 
flagging. 

It  may  be  said  that  the  Mr.  Bollaert  mentioned  here 
proceeded  in  1855  on  the  invitation  of  Messrs  Cousino  and 
Garland  to  report  on  the  now  famous  southern  Chilean 
coal  mines  of  Lota  and  Coronel,  and  his  observations  were 
afterwards  read  at  the  University  of  Chile. 

The  inauguration  in  the  continent  of  British  banking 
upon  a  modern  basis  was  reserved,  of  course,  for  a  some- 
what later  period.  From  their  comparatively  modest 
beginnings  have  now  sprung  such  famous  establishments 
as  that  of  the  London  and  River  Plate  Bank — which, 
founded,  I  believe,  in  1863,  stands  as  the  pioneer — the 
London  and  Brazilian  Bank,  and  others. 

These,  of  course,  have  found  as  allies  a  number  of  finan- 
cial houses  of  world-wide  repute,  the  list  of  which,  I  sup- 
pose, may  be  headed  by  such  firms  as  those  of  Rothschild 
and  Baring.  It  is  a  matter  of  common  knowledge  how 
this  latter  house  was  involved  in  the  Argentine  financial 
crisis  of  1890,  when,  as  a  result  of  the  unwise  policy  of 
President  Juarez  Celman,  Baring  Brothers,  the  financial 
agents  of  the  Argentine  Government,  were,  through  no 
fault  of  their  own,  forced  into  liquidation.  The  result 
showed  that  they  were  perfectly  solvent,  and  in  the  end 
they  emerged  with  flying  colors  from  a  difficult  position. 

It  is  now  time  to  take  a  rapid  general  glimpse  of  the 
various  British  communities  in  South  America.  Need- 
less to  say,  these  were  far  more  important  in  the  temper- 
ate Southern  half  of  the  continent  than  in  the  tropical 
North.  We  have  already  seen  that,  very  soon  after  its 
capture  by  the  South  Americans  from  the  Spaniards,  the 


IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  485 

city  of  Valparaiso  is  reported  to  have  had  a  British  popu- 
lation of  a  thousand  persons. 

Since  the  full  establishmbent  of  independence,  how- 
ever, the  towTi  which  has  held  the  greatest  attraction  for 
the  British  has  always  been  Buenos  Aires.  By  the  mid- 
dle of  the  nineteenth  century  it  was  computed  that  there 
were  five  thousand  British  residents  in  Buenos  Aires, 
and  the  community  already  possessed  a  newspaper  of  its 
own,  ''The  British  Packet." 

British  immigrants,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  took  very  kindly 
to  the  towns  at  the  edge  of  the  southern  alluvial  plains, 
where,  as  one  remarked,  "there  were  five  miles  of  wash- 
erwomen on  the  beach ! ' '  Very  soon  they  began  to  estab- 
lish their  customs  there.  The  original  Foreigners'  Club 
was  founded  in  the  Calle  San  Martin.  Its  first  president 
was  Mr.  Thomas  Duguid  of  Liverpool.  There  were  also 
Reading  and  Commercial  Booms  owned  by  the  British. 
These  were  followed  by  the  establishment  of  a  cricket  club 
and  a  racecourse. 

The  principal  occupations  to  which  the  commercial  por- 
tion of  these  British  townsfolk  applied  itself  were  those 
of  merchants,  publicans,  storekeepers,  and  boarding- 
house  proprietors,  Irish  domestic  servants  predominat- 
ing. The  British,  moreover,  owned  many  of  the  small 
farms  in  the  neighborhood  which  supplied  Buenos  Aires 
with  milk — an  industry  w^hich  has  long  since  been  taken 
over  by  the  Basques. 

In  1865  the  British  population  of  the  Argentine  Repub- 
lic was  calculated  at  32,000.  Of  this  number,  however,  no 
fewer  than  28,000  were  Irish — a  number  which  represents 
an  astonishingly  large  proportion  to  the  whole!  In  1870 
the  number  of  these  British  in  the  city  and  province  of 
Buenos  Aires  alone  had  swollen  to  some  40,000,  a  total 
which  the  inhabitants  of  Argentina  held  out  with  some 
complacency  against  the  eleven  hundred  and  odd  in  Rio 
Janeiro  and  its  neighborhood. 

Elsewhere  the  various  British  communities  were  natur- 


486      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

ally  much  smaller,  and,  indeed,  from  the  mere  numerical 
point  of  view,  none  of  them  claim  any  particular  atten- 
tion. In  one  or  two  of  the  tropical  States,  indeed,  the 
British  population  has  tended  to  diminish,  mainly  from 
climatic  causes.  Here  and  there  exists  evidence  of  this 
of  a  much  more  eloquent  nature  than  that  rendered  by 
mere  statistics.  Thus  there  is  a  record  that  at  Caracas 
on  the  26th  of  April,  1834,  when  the  affairs  of  Venezuela 
gave  a  promise  that  has  not  yet  been  fulfilled,  occurred  the 
consecration  of  an  English  church  and  burying  ground. 

From  the  description  of  these  given  by  Mr.  Edward 
Eastwick,  who  visited  the  town  in  1864,  no  small  neglect 
must  have  supervened.     Mr.  Eastwick  remarks  that : 

"The  English  burial-ground  and  the  German  are.  on 
the  southern  outskirts  of  the  city,  and  are  very  poor  places 
as  compared  with  the  Catholic  cemetery.  They  are  both 
covered  with  weeds,  but,  in  the  British  burial-ground,  the 
rank  grass  is  so  tall  that  it  is  impossible  to  see  the  graves, 
and  the  whole  place  is  full  of  ant-hills  several  feet  high. 
There  is  a  chapel,  with  an  inscription  to  say  that  it  was 
built  by  Robert  Ker  Porter  at  his  sole  expense." 

As  has  been  said,  the  chief  cause  of  this  melancholy 
picture  was  undoubtedly  climatic.  Fortunately  it  has  few 
counterparts  in  South  America,  where  the  Church  and 
its  missionaries  have  played  a  very  manful  part,  and 
where  their  efforts,  let  it  be  said,  have  been  enthusiastic- 
ally seconded  by  United  States  enterprise.  Ecclesiastical 
work  proper  has  naturally  been  undertaken  on  the  largest 
scale  in  Argentina. 

Among  the  British  ecclesiastical  establishments  of  the 
mid-nineteenth  century  in  Buenos  Aires  were  the  Eng- 
lish Episcopalian  Church,  the  Scottish  Presbyterian 
Church,  and  of  course  the  Irish  Roman  Catholic  estab- 
lishments of  much  older  standing.  These  included  the 
convent  of  the  Irish  Sisters  of  Mercy,  and  the  Irish  Con- 
vent School  and  House  of  Refuge,  which  held  some  sev- 
enty boarders,   chiefly  the   daughters   of  Irish   sheep- 


IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  487 

farmers,  while  the  House  of  Refuge  was  intended  as  a 
temporary  home  for  Irish  servants  when  disengaged.  All 
this  was  founded  by  a  very  notable  Irish  priest,  Father 
Fahy,  a  very  prominent  and  widely  loved  character, 
whose  capacity  for  good  works  seems  to  have  been  inex- 
haustible. 

In  1862  the  Irish  sheep  farmers  of  Argentina  founded 
a  secular  college  in  Lobos  on  the  outskirts  of  Buenos 
Aires,  and  it  is  on  record  that  the  following  year  the  in- 
stitution already  possessed  fifty  resident  pupils. 

One  of  the  most  noted  pillars  of  the  early  Irish  com- 
munity was  Father  Fahy,  to  whom  I  have  just  referred. 
An  immensely  and  justly  popular  man,  he  appears  to 
have  acted  not  only  as  spiritual  adviser,  but  as  a  very 
practical  father  in  the  business  affairs  of  many,  and  un- 
doubtedly many  a  household  has  to  thank  its  prosperity 
to  the  kindly  and  unceasing  efforts  of  Father  Fahy. 

In  1889  Sir  Horace  Rumbold  wrote  of  the  Irish  in  the 
river  Plate:  ''The  Irish  have,  in  short,  proved  as  great 
a  success  and  as  valuable  an  element  in  the  river  Plate 
as  they  have  been  in  so  many  ways  a  failure  in  North 
America.  They  own  almost  entire  districts  in  the  north 
and  center  of  the  province  of  Buenos  Aires,  where  they 
have  endowed  chaplaincies,  and  founded  schools  of  their 
own  with  libraries  attached  to  them ;  and  altogether  they 
present  an  aspect  so  different  from  that  of  their  brethren 
in  'the  distressful  country'  at  home,  that  one  cannot  but 
think  that  a  providential  outlet  is  offered  to  them  in  these 
regions." 

Seeing  that  Englishmen  and  Scotsmen,  although  far 
fewer  in  numbers,  had  met  with  a  corresponding  success, 
the  general  community  began  to  find  itself  in  a  distinctly 
flourishing  condition  at  the  beginning  of  the  second  half 
of  the  nineteenth  century.  Some  idea  of  the  wealth  which 
was  already  accumulating  at  that  time  in  some  of  the  more 
important  South  American  centers  may  be  gathered  from 
the  fact  that  at  a  bazaar  held  in  Buenos  Aires  in  1860  to 


4.88     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

assist  in  the  building  of  the  English  hospital  no  less  a 
sum  of  £1500  was  collected.  This  hospital,  it  may  be  said, 
was  not  the  first.  It  was  founded  to  supersede  an  earlier 
establishment  founded  in  1847. 

In  the  pastoral  country  of  Uruguay  the  situation  of  the 
British  closely  resembled  that  of  their  countrymen  in  Ar- 
gentina, although  it  must  be  said  that  political  circum- 
stances were  far  longer  in  adjusting  themselves  in  the 
former  state  than  in  the  latter. 

In  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  there  were — 
in  addition  to  a  number  of  British  estancieros,  stockmen 
and  shepherds  in  the  "camp" — many  British  mechanics 
in  Montevideo  itself.  .  Indeed,  the  British  community  of 
the  Uruguayan  capital  had  by  this  time  attained  to  con- 
siderable importance,  and  a  handsome  church  had  been 
erected  and  presented  in  1846  to  his  fellow  countrymen  by 
Mr.  Samuel  Laf  one,  one  of  the  most  prominent  river  Plate 
merchants  of  his  day.  In  connection  with  Montevideo,  it 
is  not  a  little  remarkable  to  find  that  in  the  middle  of  the 
nineteenth  century  the  paving-stones  for  the  footways  of 
the  town  were  brought  from  England ! 

The  Rev.  J.  H.  Murray,  who  visited  Uruguay  and  Ar- 
gentina in  1868,  and  was  for  a  time  chaplain  in  Colonia, 
has  recorded  some  frank  views  concerning  the  contem- 
porary British  population  of  Montevideo,  which  he  says 
"was  neither  very  attractive,  nor  on  a  par  with  that  of 
Buenos  Aires." 

Fortunately  his  opinion  here  clashes  with  those  of  vari- 
ous other  contemporary  authors,  one  of  whom  describes 
the  same  society  as  "of  a  very  superior  order — refined, 
intelligent,  and  hospitable. ' ' 

So  it  would  seem  that  it  is  all  a  question  of  point  of 
view  and  of  the  color  of  the  glasses  one  chooses  to  wear! 

There  are  various  curiosities  in  Mr.  Murray's  book 
which  make  it  well  worth  perusal.  Modem  languages  are 
seldom  the  forte  of  a  Church  of  England  parson.  Judg- 
ing by  his  rendering  of  the  few  words  he  quotes,  I  cannot 


IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  489 

help  thinking  that  correct  Castilian  was  a  closed  book  to 
Mr.  Murray.  At  all  events  his  spelling  was  sufficiently 
phonetic  to  please  the  most  revolutionary  American.  As 
written  by  him,  Quinta  becomes  keenta ;  at  his  hands  the 
inoffensive  gato,  or  cat,  becomes  a  gatter,  and  among  his 
items  of  advice  is  the  following:  ''You  must  never  call  a 
native  a  'Gaucho'  (pronounced  Gowcher)  (!),  which  im- 
plies a  wild  savage;  nor  call  a  woman,  a  'Chino,'  or  half- 
bred  (equivalent  to  our  female  dog),  as  either  would  be 
esteemed  a  term  of  reproach." 

It  would  seem  from  such  remarks  as  these  that  Mr. 
Murray  had  had  his  leg  pulled  by  some  of  the  less  rever- 
ent of  his  congregation;  but  in  any  case  it  seems  clear 
that  he  made  a  very  gallant  and  conscientious  attempt 
to  accommodate  himself  to  his  surroundings,  even  when, 
on  an  unsuspecting  visit  to  a  church,  he  was  caught  up 
in  a  grand  funeral  mass  for  a  deceased  general.  Pres- 
ently Mr.  Murray  found  himself,  holding  a  yard-long  can- 
dle which  he  had  accepted,  sitting,  kneeling,  or  standing 
with  the  rest.  After  a  time  he  had  seen  enough,  but  re- 
treat seemed  impossible,  for  all  the  chairs  behind  him  had 
now  become  filled  up,  and  he  occupied  too  prominent  a 
position  for  him  publicly  to  abandon  his  candle.  At  last 
the  means  of  escape  offered  itself  in  the  shape  of  a  new- 
comer who  was  advancing  to  the  front,  having  neither 
candle  nor  chair.  Murray  seized  the  opportunity,  pressed 
his  candle  and  his  chair  upon  the  newcomer,  and  slid  away 
from  the  spot  in  a  fashion  which  proves  that  if  he  lacked 
somewhat  in  humor,  he  was  by  no  means  deficient  in  tact. 

But  the  remarks  of  this  churchman  have  led  us  away 
from  his  own  church  and  its  missionaries.  British  mis- 
sionary enterprise  in  South  America  has  naturally  been 
conducted  in  somewhat  difficult  circumstances.  Regarded 
from  the  purely  practical  point  of  view,  it  is  a  far  simpler 
matter  to  deal  with  savages  over  whose  land  floats  the 
metaphorical  shadow  of  the  Union  Jack  than  with  those 
whose  country,  when  once  it  has  become  absorbed  into  the 


490      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

civilized  world,  will  become  subject  to  the  laws  of  a  Latin 
republic,  and  will  become  part  and  parcel  of  a  Latin  com- 
munity. 

The  amount  of  good  missionary  work  which  has  been 
effected  is  therefore  all  the  more  laudable,  and,  in  spite  of 
the  inevitable  disadvantages  to  which  I  have  referred, 
much  of  the  influence  should  continue  permanent. 

The  first  missionary  attempts  of  importance  were  made 
in  Tierra  del  Fuego.  More  than  one  catastrophe  oc- 
curred here,  and  Darwin's  account  of  his  voyage  to  these 
regions  in  the  Beagle  alone  suffices  to  show  the  perils  and 
dire  hardships  which  these  pioneer  missionaries  had  to 
face.  In  this  bleak  country  the  Yahgan  Indians  have  now 
become  evangelized. 

It  was  in  1844  that  the  first  regular  missionary  society 
for  South  America  was  established.  Known  as  the  Pat- 
agonian  Missionary  Society,  it  was  founded  by  a  naval 
man,  Captain  Allen  Gardiner,  who  visited  the  still  truc- 
ulent Araucanian  Indians  of  southern  Chile,  and  de- 
scribed his  adventures  in  a  book  published  in  1841,  '^A 
Visit  to  the  Indians  on  the  Frontiers  of  Chili."  From 
this  enterprise  has  been  evolved  the  important  associa- 
tion known  as  the  South  American  Missionary  Society. 

One  of  the  tragedies  of  South  American  enterprise  oc- 
curred in  1860,  when  the  Patagonian  Missionary  schooner 
Allen  Gardiner  was  captured  by  the  Tierra  del  Fuego 
Indians,  in  the  Beagle  Channel.  The  master.  Captain 
Fall,  the  mate,  five  seamen,  and  Mr.  Garland  Phillips,  a 
catechist,  were  murdered,  and  only  one  man  managed  to 
make  his  escape  from  the  scene  of  the  disaster. 

The  chief  fields  of  missionary  work  among  the  abor- 
igines are  the  Paraguayan  Chaco  and  southern  Chile.  It 
is  among  the  swamps  and  forests  of  the  Paraguayan 
Chaco — where  an  extraordinary  scourge  of  human  insects 
burns  the  human  skin  like  fire,  and  where  the  Indian  is 
only  just  emerging  from  the  state  that  greets  a  stranger 
with  an  arrowhead — that  the  most  striking  work  has  re- 


IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  491 

cently  been  achieved.  Here  Mr.  W.  Barbrooke  Grubb 
undertook  a  mission  which  earned  for  him  the  title  of  the 
''Livingstone  of  South  America."  In  1889  he  crossed 
the  great  river  which  divides  civilized  Paraguay  from  the 
savage  Chaco,  and  entered  boldly  among  the  Lengua  In- 
dians, escaping  death  by  a  marvelous  concatenation  of 
circumstances,  and  thus  obtaining  the  lively  distinction 
of  being  the  only  white  man  who  had  ever  gone  among 
these  people  and  survived !  On  one  occasion,  shot  in  the 
back,  his  life  hung  in  the  balance,  but  he  recovered,  and 
continued  a  work  that  has  now  accomplished  the  civiliza- 
tion of  a  considerable  portion  of  the  Lengua  tribe,  as  well 
as  of  some  neighboring  groups.  Another  very  notable 
missionary,  and  an  authority  on  the  Indian  languages,  is 
the  Rev.  E.  J.  Hunt,  who  went  out  in  1892. 

Had  a  Paraguayan  of  thirty  years  ago  been  told  that 
of  these  fierce,  intractable  Indians — remarkable  at  the 
time  for  nothing  beyond  their  wars,  crude  weapons,  feath- 
ers, and  drunken  orgies — over  fifty  would  in  a  short  time 
become  full  members  of  the  Church  of  England,  they 
would  undoubtedly  have  received  the  prophecy  with  the 
utmost  incredulity !  But  so  it  is.  Much  work,  moreover, 
has  been  undertaken  among  other  tribes,  formerly  quite 
implacable,  such  as  the  Matacos  of  the  Argentine  Chaco, 
who  now  regularly  proceed  to  San  Pedro  de  Jujuy  for 
the  sugar-cane  harvesting,  and  similar  tribes  such  as  Chu- 
nupis,  Tobas,  Chorotis,  and  others. 

In  southern  Chile,  where  the  warrior  race  of  Araucan- 
ians  have  now  settled  down  to  a  comparatively  tranquil 
existence,  the  work  has  arrived  at  a  far  more  advanced 
stage,  and  the  establishments  here  include  four  boarding 
schools. 

So  much  for  the  main  missionary  features  of  the  so- 
ciety. As  regards  the  ministerial  side  it  founded  in  1869 
the  bishopric  of  the  Falkland  Islands,  the  jurisdiction  of 
which  originally  included  all  South  America  with  the  ex- 
ception of  British   Guiana.     Bishop  Every,  who   acted 


492      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

for  thirty  years,  was  succeeded  by  Bishop  Stirling.  This 
bishop  divided  the  diocese  into  two  in  1908 — that  of  the 
Falkland  Islands,  including  South  America  to  the  west  of 
the  Andes,  that  of  Argentina  taking  the  countries  to  the 
east. 

In  this  connection  the  society  helped  the  following  chap- 
laincies until  they  became  self-supporting :  Rosario,  Cor- 
doba, and  Tucumah,  in  Argentina ;  Concepcion  and  Punta 
Arenas  in  Chile ;  Sao  Paulo  in  Brazil,  and  Callao  in  Peru. 
It  is  still  helping,  moreover,  at  the  following  Argentine 
centers:  Buenos  Aires,  Alberdi,  the  province  of  Entre 
Rios,  and  the  Welsh  colony  in  Chubut ;  at  Santiago,  Lota, 
Coronel,  Coquimbo,  and  Temuco,  in  Chile;  at  Salto  and 
Fray  Bentos  in  Uruguay;  and  at  Santos  in  Brazil. 

But  even  this  does  not  exhaust  the  energies  of  the  South 
American  Missionary  Society,  for  it  has  founded  British 
schools  at  Alberdi  and  Trelew  in  Argentina,  and  at  Tem- 
uco in  Chile.  Beyond  this  it  has  established  a  British 
orphanage  at  Los  Cocos  in  Argentina,  and  is  responsible 
for  much  seamen's  work  at  the  ports. 

Briefly,  it  may  be  said  that  the  South  American  Mis- 
sionary Society  is  working  in  Argentina,  Brazil,  Chile, 
Peru,  Paraguay,  and  Uruguay,  with  a  traveling  chaplain 
for  the  North  of  the  continent.  Its  sixteen  head-stations 
and  twenty-four  out-stations  are  staffed  by  110  persons,  a 
total  made  up  of  18  clergy,  19  laymen,  57  women  workers, 
and  16  native  workers.  Three  doctors  are  normally  at- 
tached to  the  missions.  From  all  this  it  will  be  seen  that 
the  work  is  as  notable  for  its  scope  as  for  its  thorough- 
ness. 

I  have  come  across  an  enthusiastic  testimony  to  the  ef- 
forts of  the  South  American  Missionary  Society  written 
in  1877  by  Mr.  Hadfield,  who  says : 

''With  the  feeble  resources  of  the  society,  unaided  by 
government  or  other  assistance,  the  missionaries  have 
traversed  a  large  portion  of  the  Amazon  and  its  affluents, 
particularly  the  River  Purus,  where  two  or  three  are  now 


IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  493 

residing  amongst  the  Indian  tribes,  on  its  banks,  pursu- 
ing tlieir  arduous  work  of  endeavoring  to  Christianize 
them  .  .  .  one  of  the  earliest  pioneers  of  the  society,  Dr. 
Lee,  was  unfortunately  drowned,  by  the  sinking  of  a  small 
steamer,  moored  to  the  banks  of  the  Purus,  and  on  which 
he  was  sleeping,  some  of  the  crew  being  on  shore.  The 
event  was  a  very  melancholy  and  discouraging  one,  but  it 
did  not  deter  his  fellow-workers,  the  Eev.  Mr.  Clough 
and  Mr.  Eesyek,  from  following  in  his  track  .  .  .  Lately 
another  missionary,  the  Eev.  W.  Thwaites  Duke,  has  gone 
out  to  join  his  colleagues,  and  he  has  also  sent  home  a  very 
graphic  account  of  his  trip  up  the  Amazon." 

Coming  down  to  recent  times,  when  some  of  the  now 
enormous  cities  of  South  America  demand  a  species  of 
attention  the  need  for  which  has  only  sprung  up  with  their 
growth,  the  work  of  a  clergyman,  Mr.  Morris,  in  Buenos 
Aires,  has  undoubtedly  been  most  admirable,  and  has  met 
with  a  gratifying  response.  This  has  lain  among  the 
youngsters  of  the  city,  and  how  great  was  its  need  has 
been  evidenced  by  the  present  magnitude  of  the  work 
which,  including  a  mission  hall  and  various  schools,  has 
met  with  the  deservedly  hearty  encouragement  of  the  Ar- 
gentine Government. 


CHAPTEE  XXIV 

ACHIEVEMENTS    OF     THE     BRITISH    IN     THE     NINETEENTH 
CENTURY    (ll) 

Influence  of  the  practical  atmosphere  of  the  Americas — Some  unlocked  for 
results  of  the  British  expedition — Early  military  and  naval  settlers — 
Treaty  rights — Relations  between  the  British  and  South  American 
agriculturalists — How  the  British  adapted  themselves  to  local  cus- 
toms— Tricks  of  speech — Town  communities — Early  British  pastoral- 
ists  of  the  river  Plate — The  foundation  of  the  livestock  industry — 
Advent  of  the  Scottish  colony — The  importation  of  pedigree  stock — 
Later  progress — First  experiments  in  meat  preserving — Development 
of  the  industry — The  career  of  Robert  Billinghurst — Some  early 
estancia  records — Success  of  the  Irish  pioneers — A  scourge  of  "Camp" 
duellists — Pastoral  incidents — Success  and  failure — The  Henley 
colony — The  Welsh  colony  at  Chubut — Ideals  and  difficulties  of  the 
settlers — The  Australian  colony  in  Paraguay — Reasons  for  its  founda- 
tion. Mr.  Stewart  Grahame  on  an  experiment  in  socialism — Its  col- 
lapse— A  tentative  exportation  from  Bolivia  of  llamas,  alpacas,  and 
Vicunas — Objections  of  the  Bolivian  Government — How  its  officials 
were  outwitted — Some  explorers,  mountain-climbers,  and  travelers — 
The  influence  of  sport. 

NO  doubt  as  many  delusions  have  been  concerned 
with  South  America  as  with  any  other  continent. 
Many  Englishmen  have  sailed  for  the  Spanish- 
speaking  countries  of  that  continent,  expecting  the  voy- 
age's end  to  reveal  to  them  a  fantastic,  paradoxical 
world  such  as  was  truly  conjured  up  from  Spain  in  Eu- 
rope by  that  mellow  and  delightful  author,  Richard 
Ford.  Surely  no  writer  ever  opened  the  doors  of  a 
country  more  gently,  and  at  the  same  time  more  widely 
— and  the  doors  of  Spain  are  the  heaviest  and  creak  the 
loudest  of  all  at  the  push  of  an  unskilled  and  ponderous 
hand! 

But  at  no  time  were  Ford's  **Cosas  de  Espana"  trans- 
lated with  their  full  peninsular  flavor  across  the  West- 

494 


IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  495 

ern  Ocean.  In  certain  respects  the  atmosphere  of  the 
Americas  has  always  proved  unsympathetic.  Its  prac- 
tical influence  has  chilled,  for  instance,  even  the  proverbs 
of  Spain,  and  has  reduced  their  resounding  bulk  to  a 
handier  collection  of  lesser  volume.  It  has  exercised  a 
similar  effect  on  many  trappings,  whether  of  speech, 
office,  or  general  social  environment. 

It  need  not  be  inferred  from  this  that  the  Spanish 
South  American  has  lacked  his  Iberian  graces.  The 
Spanish  South  American  can  be  as  eloquent  as  the  Span- 
iard. The  flow  of  his  oratory  is  such  as  may  be  envied 
by  the  speakers  of  less  fluent  nations.  But  he  has  his 
strong  practical  side,  for  all  that,  and  when  occupied  by 
the  hard-and-fast  business  of  the  day,  he  is  capable  of 
turning  the  streams  of  his  imagination  and  eloquence  in 
a  single-minded  fashion  upon  even  such  prosaic  and 
profitable  objects  as  bulls,  rams,  and  sires ! 

It  was,  indeed,  this  pastoral  side  of  his  existence, 
which — in  the  South,  at  all  events — led  to  the  first  real 
intimacy  between  him  and  the  British.  As  has  been 
seen,  the  advent  of  these  latter  was  heralded  in  a  some- 
what truculent  manner  by  the  military  expeditions  to  the 
Eio  de  la  Plata  The  final  results  of  this  could  by  no 
means  have  been  foreseen,  when  Admiral  Home  Pop- 
ham's  fleet  first  cast  anchor  in  the  muddy  waters  that 
washed  the  town  of  Buenos  Aires.  From  out  of  the 
smoke  of  battle  grew  the  beginnings  of  a  mutual  respect 
and  friendship. 

The  expedition  that  had  failed  from  a  military  point 
of  view  was  crowned  with  an  unexpected  success  in  the 
affairs  of  every-day  and  commercial  life.  The  influence 
of  the  British  occupation  had  been  greater  than  had  been 
suspected  at  the  time.  It  had  served  to  disseminate 
new  ideas,  which  had  been  eagerly  drunk  in  by  the  South 
Americans.  Moreover,  although  most  of  the  British 
merchants  who  had  flocked  to  the  spot  had  departed 
with  the  fleet,  a  certain  number  had  remained,  while  of 


496     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

the  rest  there  were  not  a  few  who  returned  to  the  tempt- 
ing field  after  the  lapse  of  a  year  or  two. 

As  for  the  colonists  themselves,  the  added  confidence 
of  their  own  strength,  which  the  events  of  the  expedition 
had  taught  them,  had  the  effect  of  urging  them  to  display 
more  openly  that  warmth  toward  the  foreigner,  which 
they  had  experienced  almost  from  their  first  contact  with 
the  outer  world,  but  to  which  the  laws  of  Spain  had  not 
permitted  them  to  give  expression. 

We  have  seen  that  the  War  of  Independence  was  re- 
sponsible for  the  arrival  of  many  British  soldiers  and 
sailors,  a  certain  number  of  whom  remained  as  settlers, 
in  the  Southern  continent.  The  most  pronounced  im- 
migration of  the  British,  however,  followed  the  conclu- 
sion of  this  war,  and  the  signing  of  the  treaty  which 
guaranteed  to  British  subjects  full  protection,  liberties, 
and  trading  rights,  as  well  as  exemption  from  all  local 
claims  such  as  those  for  military  service  and  the  like. 
It  was  after  this  that  the  British  went  beyond  the  first 
stage  common  to  the  immigrants  in  a  foreign  country: 
they  took  up  land,  and  settled  themselves  for  better  or 
worse  in  the  new  territories  of  the  South. 

I  doubt  if  there  has  been  a  parallel  in  the  entire  his- 
tory of  British  immigration  of  the  ease  with  which  these 
settlers  threw  out  their  sentimental  roots,  and  adapted 
themselves  to  their  surroundings.  The  more  practical 
side  of  the  influx  was  marked  by  the  arrival  of  pedigree 
cattle,  horses,  and  sheep,  and  soon  the  Shorthorns  and 
Herefords,  Hackneys  and  Clydesdales,  Lincolns  and 
Romney  Marsh,  began  to  transform  the  livestock  popu- 
lation of  the  pastoral  plains. 

On  the  whole,  nothing  could  have  been  happier  than 
the  relations  between  these  newcomers  and  their  Argen- 
tine or  Uruguayan  neighbors.  The  influence  was  mu- 
tual. The  South  American  rapidly  adapted  himself  to 
the  British  notions  of  breeding  and  sport.  He  took  to 
polo,  and  learned  how  to  go  out  with  a  gun  a  V anglais; 


AVENUE   DE   MAYO,    BUENOS  AIRES 


I'l.AZA   CONSTITUCION   STATION,    BUENOS  AIRES 


IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  497 

his  stockmen  altered  the  short  bursts  of  tricky  speed  that 
characterized  the  typical  Gaucho  horse-race  for  the  long, 
sweeping  gallop  of  the  English  turf. 

The  British,  for  their  part,  experienced  an  unusual 
lack  of  difficulty  in  adapting  themselves  to  the  ways  of 
their  adopted  land.  The  interest  which  the  personali- 
ties of  their  Gaucho  stockmen  compelled  from  the  first 
rapidly  deepened  into  an  understanding  that  was  by  no 
means  without  its  admiration.  As  the  British  estan- 
ciero  became  more  conversant  with  the  ethics  of  the 
Campo,  he  began  to  be  imbued  with  some  of  the  ardent 
pride  of  the  natives  of  its  soil.  He  discovered  the  merits 
of  a  poncho,  and  took  to  sipping  mate  through  the  bom- 
billa  with  the  enthusiasm  of  the  expert.  His  speech  be- 
came more  and  more  interlarded  with  local  phraseology. 
Edward  Smith  became  Don  Eduardo  to  William  Brown, 
and  William  Brown  was  now  Don  Gulliermo  to  Don  Edu- 
ardo— alias  Edward  Smith.  Moreover,  when  Don  Gul- 
liermo rode  into  a  paddock  it  was  into  a  potrero  that  he 
went ;  when  he  mustered  cattle,  it  was  to  a  rodeo  that  he 
galloped,  and  if  the  tick  disease  smote  his  cattle,  it  was 
from  grano  malo  that  they  suffered.  And  so  on,  not  only 
in  matters  concerning  livestock  and  the  pastoral  life, 
but  in  the  general  trend  of  existence — even  down  to  such 
little  local  tricks  of  speech  as  that  of  trailing  an  inter- 
rogative "Nof"  at  the  end  of  an  affirmative  sentence. 

However  incongruous  this  mixture  of  languages  and 
jargon  might  sound  elsewhere,  it  fitted — and  still  fits — 
admirably  the  atmosphere  of  the  free  and  open  Campo: 
just  as  the  suave  Iberian  influence  is  apt  to  give  an  ad- 
vantageous touch  to  those  sunburned  leaders  of  virile 
lives  who  hailed  originally  from  northern  latitudes. 

A  similar  process  of  blending  occurred  in  the  towns. 
But  here  the  results  were  neither  so  rapid  nor  so  com- 
plete, as  was  only  natural  among  the  larger  distinct 
communities.  On  the  other  hand,  there  are  some  impor- 
tant communities,  such  as  that  of  the  Irish-Portenos  of 


498     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

Buenos  Aires,  that,  up  to  a  certain  point,  would  seem 
to  have  identified  themselves  successfully  with  the  dual 
interests  of  the  two  nationalities.  But,  so  far  as  po- 
litical nationality  is  concerned,  all  alike  would  appear 
to  have  conformed  to  that  natural  law  which  calls  on  all 
settlers  in  South  America  to  insist  on  their  claim  to 
South  American  citizenship  first  and  foremost. 

The  achievements  of  the  early  British  settlers  in  the 
pastoral  plains  of  the  river  Place  are  worthy  of  some 
detailed  mention.  A  certain  number  of  these  had  ar- 
rived, as  a  matter  of  fact,  during  that  final  decade  of 
the  colonial  era,  when,  although  the  flag  of  Spain  was 
still  waving  over  the  yellow  waters  of  the  great  river, 
the  fundamental  laws  of  the  empire  had  become  greatly 
relaxed.  The  most  prominent  names  among  those  who 
began  to  flourish  in  the  period  between  1802  and  1825 
would  seem  to  be  Gibson,  Lafone,  Brittain,  Appleyard, 
Billinghurst,  McKinley,  Thwaites,  White,  Fair,  Parish 
Eobertson,  Carlisle,  Nuttall,  Gowland,  Harratt,  Sheri- 
dan, Miller,  Dick,  Duguid,  Puddicomb,  Burton,  Newton, 
Halsey,  and  Hannah.^ 

It  is,  of  course,  only  possible  to  give  some  scrappy 
fragments  of  information  here  concerning  the  progress 
effected  by  these  pioneers.  The  following  achievements, 
however,  may  rank  among  some  of  the  most  salient.  In 
1813  Mr.  Henry  Lloyd  imported  into  Argentine  one  hun- 
dred merino  ewes,  and  this  founded  the  first  fine-wooled 
merino  flock  in  the  Province  of  Buenos  Aires.  The 
disturbed  political  condition  of  the  country  interfered 
with  the  further  progress  of  the  venture;  but  a  little 
later  Messrs.  Harratt,  Sheridan,  and  Whitfield  founded 
merino  stud  flock,  which  became  the  most  famous  of  its 
day.  Other  notable  sheep-breeders  of  that  period  were 
Mr.  John  Hannah,  Mr.  William  White,  Mr.  Richard 
Newton,  Mr.  John  Fair,  and  the  Messrs.  Gibson. 

In  1825  an  important  Scottish  colony  was  formed  on 

1  See  list  of  early  arrivals  in  Appendix. 


IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  499 

the  Monte  Grande  Estancia,  some  six  leagues  from  the 
city  of  Buenos  Aires,  which  had  originally  been  the 
property  of  the  Gibson  brothers.  This  had  been  pur- 
chased by  John  and  William  Parish  Robertson,  who 
made  arrangements  for  the  reception  of  the  Scottish  col- 
ony there.  About  sixteen  thousand  acres  were  set  aside 
for  this  purpose,  and  these  lands  were  occupied  by  some 
two  hundred  and  fifty  persons,  including  children,  who 
sailed  out  from  Edinburgh  in  the  good  ship  Symmetry. 

Here  are  the  last  two  verses  of  a  lengthy  poem  by  one 
of  the  Monte  Grande  colonists  descriptive  of  the  voyage. 
Undoubtedly  tlie  quality  of  its  inspiration  is  lower  than 
celestial,  but  it  gives  a  quaintly  cheerful  account  of  a 
fateful  arrival: 

The  Symmetry  anchored,  boats  gathered  around  them, 
While  jabbering  foreigners  their  luggage  received ; 
The  Babel  o'  tongues  was  enough  to  confound  them, 
But  naebody  understood  Scotch,  they  perceived. 

Betimes  there  started  a  coo-cairt  procession, 
O'  colonists,  implements,  bedding,  and  rations. 
Bound  for  the  South,  where  the  Robertson  concession 
Awaited  to  welcome  the  Scotch  Immigrations. 

Although  the  Scottish  Colony,  the  advent  of  which  was 
thus  sung,  suffered  greatly  from  the  civil  wars  into 
which  the  country  became  plunged,  the  proportion  of  its 
individual  members  who  ultimately  achieved  success  was 
very  large.  Still  pursuing  the  policy  of  selecting  the 
most  salient  scraps  of  information,  it  may  be  said  that 
some  thirty  years  after  the  founding  of  the  sheep- 
breeding  industry  Mr.  Robert  T.  Gibson  established  a  boil- 
ing-down factory  on  his  estmicia,  ^'Los  Yngleses,"  an  im- 
portant departure  which  opened  up  a  new  market  for 
the  produce  of  the  Campo,  and  which  caused  the  price  of 
livestock  to  rise. 

I /Just  about  this  time  a  number  of  English  breeds  of^ 
^heep  were  introduced,  among  them  being  the   South- 


500     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

down,  Leicester,  Lincoln,  and  Shropshire.  Sheep-farm- 
ing in  Argentina  at  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury was  a  sufficiently  remunerative  occupation,  for  it 
could  be  conducted  on  an  imposing  scale  with  a  sur- 
prisingly small  outlay  of  capital.  This  will  be  evident 
when  it  is  explained  that  land  could  be  acquired  then  for 
some  five  hundred  pounds  the  square  league,  and  that 
native  sheep  with  which  to  stock  it  could  be  got  at  from 
eight  pence  to  a  shilling  each ! 
V  Advancing  further  on  this  same  system,  we  find  that 
in  1848  Mr.  White  imported  into  Argentina  the  first 
Shorthorn  cattle,  and  thus  began  the  revolution  in  cattle- 
breeding  which  has  been  responsible  for  such  epoch- 
making  results  at  the  present  day.  Tlie  first  Shorthorn 
bull  that  trod  the  Campo  was  called  Tarquin,  and  it  was 
owing  to  this  that  all  Shorthorns,  or  mestizos  of  Short- 
horn type,  were  subsequently  widely  known  among 
South  Americans  as  ''Tarquinos,"  or  ''Talquinos." 

We  now  arrive  at  a  period  of  more  rapid  progress. 
Between  1850  and  1880  some  of  the  most  prominent 
British  names  connected  with  the  general  breeding  of 
livestock  are  those  of  Fair,  White,  Hannah,  Shennan, 
Musgrave,  0 'Grady,  and  Kemmis — the  last  being  espe- 
cially  associated   with   thoroughbred   horse-breeding. 

In  1866  some  stir  was  caused  in  Buenos  Aires  by  the 
arrival  of  Messrs.  Sloper  and  Paris,  who  came  out  to 
make  some  experiments  in  connection  with  the  former's 
invention  of  a  system  of  preserving  meat  by  means  of 
the  exhaustion  of  air  and  the  substitution  of  nitrogen. 
It  was  not  until  1883,  however,  that  the  meat  industry 
first  began  to  develop  on  commercial  lines.  Then 
Drabble  Brothers  in  Campana,  and  S.  G.  Sansinena  in 
Barracas  began  to  freeze  mutton  for  shipment  to  Great 
Britain.  Soon  afterwards  other  firms  such  as  John  Nel- 
son &  Co.  and  O'Connor  &  Co.  joined  in,  and  in  ten 
years'  time  no  fewer  than  1,300,000  carcases  were  being 
shipped  in  the  place  of  the  trifling  17,000  that  had  been 


IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  501 

exported  from  the  river  Plate  during  the  first  year  of 
the  industry. 

So  much  for  a  few  of  the  chief  landmarks  in  the  careers 
of  the  river  Plate  pastoralists.  We  may  now  leave  the 
severe  highroad  of  their  progress,  and  wander  for  a 
short  time  among  the  leafy  and  winding  by-ways. 

There  is  at  least  one  name  among  those  already  men- 
tioned that  evokes  a  peculiarly  wide  interest.  This  is 
that  of  Robert  Billinghurst,  who  came  out  either  with 
the  British  to  river  Plate,  or  immediately  after  it.  Bil- 
linghurst appears  to  have  been  a  man  of  considerable 
attainments.  Flinging  himself  with  ardor  into  the  af- 
fairs of  the  young  republic,  he  married  an  Argentine 
lady,  and  became  an  Argentine,  the  first  Englishman,  I 
believe,  to  be  naturalized  as  a  South  American. 

Robert  Billinghurst  sat  as  a  deputy  in  the  first  con- 
gress, and  rose  to  be  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  party  that 
was  subsequently  known  as  "Unitarian."  This  was  the 
party  that,  under  the  leadership  of  Lavalle,  opposed 
first  Dorrego,  and  afterwards  Rosas.  When  the  latter 
became  dictator,  Billinghurst,  like  so  many  others,  was 
forced  to  flee  the  country. 

It  was  the  grandson  of  this  Robert  Billinghurst  who, 
as  President  of  Peru,  died  quite  recently,  and  who  un- 
doubtedly was  one  of  the  most  upright  and  liberal  chiefs 
of  state  that  has  ever  held  office  in  that  republic.  There 
is,  by  the  way,  a  street  in  Buenos  Aires  named  after  the 
original  Billinghurst. 

It  is  only  natural  that  the  records  of  the  early  British 
estancieros  in  the  Rio  de  La  Plata  should  be  scanty. 
The  lives  of  very  few  pioneers  in  any  walk  of  life  are 
inclined  to  adapt  themselves  to  detached  literary  effort ! 
Some  data,  however,  have  been  preserved  concerning 
the  estates  of  the  Gibson  brothers,  who  at  the  end  of  the 
first  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century  were  very  large 
landowners.  It  is  on  record,  for  instance,  that  the  list 
of  stores  ordered  in  1825  for  one  of  their  estancias,  the 


502     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

''Carmen,"  included  "gunpowder,  two  cannons,  eight 
muskets,  twenty  sabers,  lead  and  stone  cannon  balls." 
That  these  objects  were  not  designed  merely  as  orna- 
ments was  found  out  to  their  cost  by  the  Indians  on  the 
occasion  of  their  next  raid,  when  the  "Carmen"  was  not 
caught  napping. 

An  interesting  incident  concerning  another  of  the  fam- 
ily estancias,  Los  Yngleses,  is  thus  related  by  Mr. 
Herbert  Gibson  in  his  book:  "The  sheep-breeding  Indus- 
try in  the  Argentine  Republic":  "The  shearing  con- 
tinued to  be  a  difficult  operation  until  about  1845.  Labor 
was  not  easy  to  obtain,  and  women  and  children  had 
often  to  do  the  work.  This  was  because  the  native  was 
either  serving  in  the  National  Guard  at  the  orders  of  the 
Dictator  Rosas,  or  hiding  away  from  the  detachments 
which  were  constantly  scouring  the  country  in  search  of 
recruits."  Apropos  of  this  scarcity  of  hands,  an  in- 
cident in  1845  served  the  estancia  in  good  stead.  Rosas 
had  shut  the  Parana  River  against  foreign  flags  .  .  . 
and  at  last  in  1845  the  British  minister  asked  for  his 
passports,  and  left  the  country,  announcing  his  action 
to  the  English  residents.  The  author's  father  was  down 
in  the  "Yngleses,"  and  received  the  announcement  a 
few  days  later,  but  resolved  to  remain  where  he  was, 
and  trust  to  the  chivalry  of  the  Argentine  commander 
in  the  South,  to  leave  him  in  peace.  At  this  time  the 
cattle  roamed  untended,  there  being  no  hands  to  mob 
them  or  brand  them,  for  all  the  gaucJios  were  cantoned 
and  under  arms.  There  was  a  danger  of  the  stock  be- 
coming unmanageable,  and  the  greater  part  being  un- 
branded,  they  could  be  claimed  by  any  neighbor  as  his 
own.  Mr.  Robert  Gibson  rode  dow^n  from  Buenos  Aires 
to  Dolores,  and  applied  to  Colonel  del  Valle,  the  Chief 
in  Command,  for  a  picket  of  men  to  do  the  work.  Del 
Valle 's  answer  was  a  flattering  one:  "For  your  brother 
who  remained  at  his  estancia  when  his  minister  advised 
him  to  leave  the  country?     Most  willingly!" 


IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  503 

I  have  already  referred  more  than  once  to  the  notable 
success  attained  by  the  Irish,  who  were  the  earliest  of 
all  the  British  pioneers  to  arrive  in  the  river  Plate.  A 
circumstance  which  at  a  later  period  added  to  the  value 
of  these  Irish  as  shepherds  was  their  freedom  from  the 
military  liabilities  which  even  before  the  time  of  Rosas 
would  occasionally  sweep  an  estancia  clean  of  all  its 
gauchos  at  five  minutes'  notice. 

The  industrial  merits  of  these  Irish,  moreover,  were 
keenly  appreciated  by  the  Argentines,  who  would  take 
these  shepherds  into  partnership  so  far  as  the  flock  under 
their  care  was  concerned.  By  this  working  arrangement 
the  estanciero  provided  the  sheep  and  the  land,  and  the 
shepherd  supplied  the  labor.  As  a  result,  the  flocks  of 
these  shepherds  increased  rapidly,  and  they,  in  turn,  be- 
came estancieros,  frequently  attaining  to  great  riches, 
while  the  Argentine  himself  received  no  little  benefit  from 
the  arrangement. 

Those  who  enter  the  ''back-blocks"  of  a  new  and  dis- 
turbed country  cannot  expect  to  lie  upon  a  bed  of  roses. 
There  were  "bad  men"  among  the  gauchos,  of  course, 
and  a  few  of  these  could  scarcely  fail  to  fall  foul  of  the 
Irish  pioneers.  It  is  related  that  one  of  these  latter,  in- 
furiated by  the  wantonness  of  some  of  the  knife  play  he 
witnessed,  took  to  the  weapon  himself,  and  slew  seven- 
teen expert  duellists  and  ' '  Camp ' '  Bravos  by  slashing  in 
sincerely  and  wholeheartedly  with  his  knife  while  his  op- 
ponents were  airily  occupied  with  the  preliminary  airy 
ceremonial  flourishes  of  their  weapons! 

Needless  to  say,  half  a  century  ago  the  British 
estancieros  did  not  dress  for  dinner,  nor  did  their  table- 
cloths reflect  the  golden  bubbles  of  champagne!  Such 
luxuries  are  only  attained  to  in  a  pastoral  country  by 
much  labor  and  many  gradual  stages.  Half  a  centuiy  ago 
tablecloths  themselves  were  very  rare,  and  frequently  non- 
existent. In  1860  Hinchliff  tells  the  story  of  a  young 
Englishman  who  set  out  from  home  to  join  a  friend  of 


5045     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

his,  a  Scotsman  of  the  name  of  Anderson,  who  had  estab- 
lished himself  on  an  estancia  fifteen  leagues  from  Pay- 
sandii  in  Uruguay.  Mr.  Eoberts,  the  former,  who  had 
not  announced  his  intention  beforehand,  hoped  for  a 
warm  welcome  and  a  roof  to  cover  his  head.  He  ob- 
tained the  former,  but  not  the  latter.  Anderson  had 
expended  all  his  capital  on  his  land  and  livestock.  In 
company  with  a  single  staunch  gaucho,  he  was  sleeping 
on  his  saddle  under  the  stars,  in  the  fashion  of  a  true 
pioneer.  The  house  was  to  come  later — when  the  wool 
of  the  sheep  and  the  beef  and  hides  of  the  cattle  would 
have  justified  it ! 

It  is  my  endeavor  in  this  book  to  give  as  many  as  possi- 
ble of  other  people 's  opinions — especially  when  they  hap- 
pen to  coincide  with  my  own ! — so  I  will  quote  a  couple  of 
paragraphs  from  Sir  Horace  Rumbold  on  the  early  Brit- 
ish settler  on  the  Argentine  Campo : 

'  *  He  was  to  be  met  from  the  first  at  the  advanced  posts 
and  in  the  most  exposed  situations,  tilling  the  ground  and 
raising  cattle,  rifle  in  hand,  in  the  evil  days  when  the 
Indian  plague  was  still  at  its  worst.  But  the  very  daring 
of  his  first  ventures  in  some  instances  led  to  disastrous, 
and  sometimes  tragical  failure,  as  in  the  massacres  at 
Fraile  Muerto. 

''Many  of  the  young  Englishmen  who  were  first 
tempted  to  come  out  were  perhaps  scarcely  fitted  by  birth 
or  education,  for  a  hard  life  of  unremitting  toil  and 
severe  privation.  Some  of  them  went  home  in  disgust, 
while  of  those  who  struggled  on,  not  a  few  took  to  drown- 
ing their  cares  in  whisky,  or  cana,  or  fell  into  the  toils 
of  the  native  chinas,  and  speedily  sank  to  the  level  of  the 
ordinary  Gaucho." 

Success,  in  fact,  was  not  universal — for  the  simple  rea- 
son that  such  has  never  been  the  nature  of  success !  If 
there  were  a  weak  spot,  the  solitude  of  the  Campo  was 
designed  to  find  it  out.  There  is  a  tale  told  of  two  Eng- 
lishmen who  spent  most  of  their  time  in  bed  in  a  humble 


IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  505 

rancho,  a  whisky  bottle  suspended  from  the  roof  at  the 
end  of  a  string  between  the  pair.  By  this  means  the 
drink  could  be  swung  from  the  one  to  the  other  with  the 
least  possible  amount  of  trouble !  But  the  proportion  of 
such  sorry  workers  to  death  of  an  unnecessary  hobby  to 
the  whole  fine  army  of  British  estancieros,  mayordomos, 
and  workers  in  general  in  the  *'Camp"  is  most  gratify- 
ingly  insignificant. 

In  1870  a  notable  colonist  venture  was  undertaken  by 
a  Mr.  Henley,  who,  having  got  together  a  number  of  en- 
terprising young  men  of  good  family  and  circumstances, 
arranged  for  their  settlement  on  the  Argentine  Campo. 
The  first  company  of  these  to  go  out  numbered  fifty,  and 
altogether  nearly  a  hundred  landed  on  the  shores  of  the 
La  Plata.  Of  these  "Henley  boys"  a  considerable  pro- 
portion met  with  success,  and  became  flourishing  land- 
owners. 

The  physical  conditions  of  the  north  of  the  continent, 
of  course,  forbade  any  pastoral  enterprise  which  in  any 
way  approached  that  of  the  south.  Sometimes  the  Brit- 
ish were  led  into  ventures  of  this  kind,  however,  whether 
they  would  or  not.  An  instance  of  this  kind  occurred 
when  in  1855  the  government  of  Ecuador  issued  warrants 
to  the  amount  of  £560,000  in  part  payment  of  arrears  of 
interest  to  British  holders  of  its  stock.  In  consequence, 
a  British  company  was  formed  to  work  the  land,  and  in 
1859  the  yacht  Kittiwake  sailed  to  Ecuador  with  experts 
in  agriculture,  geology,  botany,  and  engineering.  Almost 
immediately  afterwards  war  broke  out  between  Peru  and 
Ecuador,  and  the  lands  ceded  to  the  British  were  claimed 
as  Peruvian.  As  compensation  for  this  some  other  lands 
were  assigned  to  the  British.  I  have  no  record  as  to 
whether  any  financial  return  of  consequence  was  ever  de- 
rived from  these.  Judging  from  the  disturbed  political 
conditions  of  the  period,  the  probabilities  are  against  this. 

The  British  have  seldom  gone  out  to  South  America  as 
agricultural  laborers  or  as  the  workers  of  small  holdings. 


506     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

Colonies,  therefore,  of  the  extent  of  those  founded  by  the 
Russians,  Poles,  and  Jews  have  not  obtained  in  their  case. 
Nevertheless  two  sufficiently  notable  instances  of  British 
Colonies  occur  at  a  much  later  period  than  that  of  the 
Scottish  enterprise,  and  comprise  immigrants  of  a  differ- 
ent social  status  to  that  of  the  ''Henley  boys." 

The  Welsh  Colony  at  Chubut,  near  Puerto  Madryn  in 
the  Argentine  province  of  Chubut,  is  the  senior  of  these 
two  ventures.  It  was  founded  in  1865  by  a  Mr.  Lewis 
Jones,  who,  together  with  some  comrades  likewise  im- 
bued with  some  of  the  more  soaring  and  attractive  of  the 
Celtic  ideals,  desired  to  establish  a  community  which 
might  cultivate  these  without  interference  from  the  out- 
side world.  Towards  the  end  of  the  last  century  the 
colony  numbered  no  fewer  than  two  thousand  inhabitants, 
who  have  proved  themselves  in  every  way  admirable 
workers  and  desirable  citizens. 

Having  never  had  the  opportunity  of  visiting  the  Welsh 
colony,  I  am  necessarily  speaking  from  hearsay.  From 
this  it  would  appear  that  their  patriotic  ideals  have  not 
been  fully  realized,  and  it  would  seem  that  the  increase  in 
the  population  of  the  colony  has  ceased.  Perhaps  its 
founders  had  not  reckoned  sufficiently  with  that  Argentine 
law — quite  reasonable  in  itself — which  makes  every  child 
bom  on  Argentine  soil  an  Argentine  subject,  and  thus 
liable  to  Argentine  regulations,  and,  if  a  boy,  to  his  an- 
nual term  of  military  service.  This  would  seem  to  have 
placed  serious  difficulties  in  the  way  of  the  original  ideas 
of  the  Welsh  colony — among  which  was  the  thorough  cul- 
tivation of  the  Welsh  language — and  in  this  respect  has 
proved  somewhat  discouraging  to  these  southern  wheat- 
growers  and  breeders  of  sheep  and  cattle,  though  their 
material  situation  would  seem  to  be  flourishing. 

The  Australian  colony  that  was  established  in  Para- 
guay provides  a  different,  and  more  dramatic  tale.  This 
venture  was  organized  by  Australian  socialists,  under  the 
leadership  of  William  Lane,  an  honorable  but  visionary 


IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  507 

man,  a  success  in  journalism,  a  tragic  failure  in  Utopian 
land  settlement.  Under  his  guidance  a  number  of  famil- 
ies of  some  of  the  finest  artisan  and  laboring  stock  in  the 
Antipodes,  disgusted  with  the  unsatisfactory  result  to 
them  of  the  great  Australian  strike,  sailed  in  1893  from 
the  Dominion  to  the  Colony  of  New  Australia  in  Para- 
guay— a  hundred  square  leagues  of  good  land  presented 
to  them  by  the  government  of  Paraguay,  which  showed  a 
commendable  anxiety  to  get  colonists  of  this  type  to  settle 
within  its  boundaries. 

The  result  of  this  enterprise  has  been  described  often 
enough,  but  never  more  lucidly  than  by  Mr.  Stewart 
Grahame  in  his  book  "Where  Socialism  Failed."  No 
community  ever  set  out  with  loftier  aims,  or  with  a  more 
settled  determination  to  do  their  duty  by  their  neighbors 
in  a  state  where  each  should  work  for  all,  and  all  should 
share  and  share  alike.  The  venture  had  an  absolutely 
fair  trial:  there  was  no  interference  from  without.  But 
when  theory  began  to  be  put  into  practice,  failure  loomed 
from  the  very  start.  Dissension  and  splits  in  the  com- 
munity completed  the  work  of  the  discontent  brought 
about  by  an  honest  attempt  at  an  equal  division  of  the 
fruits  of  unequal  labor.  After  this  the  community  aban- 
doned its  theories.  Those  who  remain  in  New  Australia 
work  for  themselves  instead  of  for  others,  and  appear 
contented  with  the  result ! 

Before  abandoning  the  topic  of  the  British  Agricultural 
and  pastoral  work  in  South  America,  let  us  turn  back 
again  for  a  last  glimpse  at  the  mid-nineteenth  century. 
The  following  episode  justifies  the  retrograde  movement, 
as  w^ill  be  seen  from  its  character ! 

Almost  every  known  domestic  animal  has,  at  one  time 
or  another,  been  introduced  into  South  America;  but  it 
was  left  to  a  Mr.  Lodger  in  1858  to  attempt  a  reversal  of 
the  process.  Having  resided  for  a  number  of  years  in 
Peru  and  Bolivia,  he  became  impressed  with  the  idea 
of  transporting  some  specimens   of  the   few  kinds   of 


508     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

indigenous  South  American  domestic  animals  to  Austra- 
lia. 

So,  having  purchased  some  flocks  of  llamas  and  al- 
pacas, together  with  a  few  vicunas,  he  assembled  them 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Lake  Titicaca,  and  there,  where 
the  feather-crowned  and  gold-plated  Inca  magnates  had 
once  led  the  worship  to  the  sun,  he  prepared  himself,  and 
his  four-legged,  swan-necked  brood  for  the  journey  to  the 
coast. 

Before  the  expedition  had  set  out,  Mr.  Ledger  heard 
news  which  would  have  dismayed  a  less  resolute  man. 
The  Bolivian  government,  it  appeared,  had  decided  not 
to  allow  his  flocks  to  leave  the  country.  This  procedure 
was  typical  of  the  old  Spanish  regime  rather  than  of  the 
new  and  liberal  Republics.  Yet  such  relicts  of  the  im- 
perial theories  of  monopoly  were  wont  to  crop  up  now 
and  then  in  this  continent.  Before  now,  indeed,  some 
important  issues  have  been  involved  in  this  way.  I  have 
heard  from  a  London  merchant — a  Mincing  Lane  man  of 
the  old  stamp  so  delightfully  portrayed  in  ' '  Vice  Versa, ' ' 
— of  the  great  difficulty  that  was  experienced  in  obtain- 
ing from  Brazil  the  seeds  of  rubber  trees  for  the  plant- 
ing of  tentative  groves  in  the  East. 

But  this,  from  a  commercial  point  of  view,  seems  rea- 
sonable enough  compared  with  this  prohibition  of  ani- 
mal export.  For  in  this  latter,  no  competition  was  in- 
volved, and  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  the  mere  presence 
of  a  young  llama  in  Sidney  could  effect  its  father's  wel- 
fare in  Bolivia!  Or,  even  that  of  its  father's  master — 
in  which  after  all  lies  the  crux  and  the  human  element 
of  the  situation ! 

Perhaps  it  was  some  such  views  as  these  latter  which 
strengthed  Mr.  Ledger 's  already  strong  personal  interest 
in  the  scheme.  Perhaps  he  argued  to  himself  that  if  a 
coach  and  four  could  be  driven  through  any  act  of  the 
British  parliament,  surely  a  flock  of  llamas  and  vicunas 
could  be  coaxed  through  a  Bolivian  By-law ! 


OLD   PRINT   OF   THE   LLAMA   AND   INDLVNS 


SOUTH    AMERICAN    INDIANS 


IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  509 

So  Ledger  left  the  neigliborhood  of  Lake  Titicaca,  only 
to  find  that  the  Bolivian  officials  were  on  the  look-out  for 
him.  In  order  to  escape  detection,  therefore,  Ledger  and 
his  convoy  were  obliged  to  forsake  the  main-roads — them- 
selves mere  sheep-tracks — and  to  scramble  as  best  they 
could  across  the  peaks  and  valleys  of  the  stupendous 
Bolivian  Mountain  country.  This  achievement  in  itself, 
involving  immense  hardships,  was  a  sufficiently  notable 
one. 

Once  arrived  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  North-western 
iVrgentine  frontier,  our  intrepid  smuggler  found  himself 
on  the  threshold  of  the  crisis  of  his  enterprise.  Ahead 
of  him  was  the  Bolivian  frontier  guard,  warned,  and  on 
the  look-out  for  his  approach.  How  on  earth  was  Ledger 
to  conceal  the  many  scores  of  his  tall  llamas!  A  few  rab- 
bits he  might  have  placed  in  a  game  pocket :  but  this  was 
not  to  be  done  with  an  animal  too  lowly  for  a  camel,  too 
lofty  for  a  sheep,  and  too  shaggy  for  a  deer.  Moreover 
any  interference  with  the  llama 's  dignity  would  undoubt- 
edly have  resulted  in  a  hiss  of  protest  followed  by  that 
unerring  ejection  of  the  missile  of  saliva  which  is  that 
haughty  creature 's  principal  weapon. 

So  Mr.  Ledger  determined  to  dispense  with  the  services 
of  a  single  llama  as  accomplice.  Having  concealed  his 
flock  in  some  field  of  the  mountains,  he  strode  forward 
alone,  bearing  bottles  as  full  to  the  mouth  with  fiery 
liquid  as  was  the  horse  of  Troy  with  men. 

Arrived  at  the  frontier  port,  the  guards, — who  did  not 
know  Mr.  Ledger  by  sight — welcomed  with  effusion  the 
presence  and  generous  beverages  of  one  whom  they  took 
to  be  an  irresponsible  and  super-jovial  traveler.  Fortune 
favored  this  bold  stroke.  The  frontier  guards  drank, 
chattered,  sang,  and  slept  in  that  conventional  and  satis- 
factory fashion  that  is  seldom  seen  off  the  operatic  stage. 
Then  Ledger  darted  away,  and  returned,  to  lead  his  com- 
panies of  padding  animals  past  the  slumbering  sentries 
on  to  Argentine  soil,  and  freedom ! 


510     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

After  a  further  strenuous  mountain  journey,  he  sailed 
from  the  Chilean  coast,  and  landed  in  Sydney  with,  it  is 
said,  a  mixed  flock  of  276  llamas,  alpacas,  and  vicunas. 

Mr.  Hinchliff  in  referring  to  this  episode  in  1863  re- 
marks: "These  immensely  valuable  animals  are  now- 
thriving  in  Australia  and  increasing  so  rapidly  that  they 
are  already  talked  of  as  a  very  important  element  in  the 
future  wealth  of  our  colonies." 

But  this  prediction,  it  seems,  was  of  too  optimistic  a 
nature.  At  all  events  I,  for  one — who  in  my  youth  ex- 
changed the  remote  possibility  of  a  diplomatic  cocked  hat 
for  the  privilege  of  chasing  sheep  in  the  back  blocks  of 
New  Zealand — met  with  no  llamas,  or  even  tales  of  llamas 
in  Australasia.  But  it  need  not  be  deduced  from  this 
fact  alone  that  these  animals  do  not  exist  somewhere 
in  the  Dominions ! 

Perhaps  the  end  of  a  chapter  devoted  to  these  breezy 
callings  of  the  open  air  would  be  as  fitting  a  place  as  any 
other  in  which  to  refer  briefly  to  the  South  American  feats 
of  such  noted  mountain-climbers  as  Conway,  Whymper, 
and  Fitzgerald,  and  to  the  work  of  explorers  and  f  rontier- 
delimitators  such  as  Holditch,  Fawcett,  and  Edwards. 

There  are  lady  travelers  of  a  past  generation,  too,  such 
as  Lady  Brassey,  whose  cruise  in  the  Sunbeam  was 
largely  devoted  to  South  America,  and  Lady  Burton,  who 
roughed  it  with  her  brilliant  husband  across  the  ''back- 
blocks"  of  Brazil. 

But  it  is  necessary  to  resist  the  temptation  to  launch 
out  in  these  directions.  There  are  of  course,  many  other 
travelers  and  geographers  of  note,  including  the  recently 
deceased  Sir  Clements  Markham,  to  whom  reference  is 
made  in  another  place.  The  names  I  have  given  are 
merely  representative  of  the  various  bodies — a  course  that 
must  necessarily  be  adopted  if  encyclopasdic  dimensions 
are  to  be  avoided  in  this  work. 

In  connection  even  with  such  weighty  subjects  as  these, 
it  is  by  no  means  out  of  place  to  make  a  passing  refer- 


IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  511 

ence  to  sport.  One  of  the  most  notable  fields  of  British 
influence  in  South  America  has  been — and  is — connected 
with  sport.  The  importance  of  this  is  not  to  be  under- 
rated; for  the  football  and  the  golf-club,  the  lawn-tennis 
racquet  and  the  racing  craft,  the  polo  ball  and  the  coach- 
horn,  and  all  the  rest  of  such  gear,  have  been  vitally 
instrumental  in  evoking  a  real  intimacy  and  mutual  re- 
spect between  the  British  and  the  South  Americans.  No 
more  convincing  evidence  exists  of  the  stage  which  has 
been  arrived  at  in  this  respect,  than  the  play  of  the  Ar- 
gentine polo  teams  in  England,  the  tour  of  a  Corinthian 
"Soccer"  eleven  in  Brazil,  and  the  visit  of  Lord  Hawke's 
cricket  team  to  Argentina. 


CHAPTER  XXV 

ACHIEVEMENTS    OF   THE    BRITISH    IN    THE    NINETEENTH 
CENTURY    (ill) 

Part  played  by  the  British  in  communications  and  transport — The  South 
American  steamship  service — The  introduction  of  steam  navigation 
into  the  Pacific — William  Wheelwright's  work — Arrival  of  the  first 
steamers — Progress  in  the  Pacific  and  in  the  Atlantic — North  Ameri- 
can competition — A  Darien  project — The  founding  of  the  Royal  Mail 
Steam  Packet  Company — Supremacy  of  British  shipping  established 
— Increase  of  British  trade  with  Brazil — Costliness  of  the  early  ocean 
mails — British  control — British  railway  enterprise  in  South  America 
— Its  value  as  a  national  advertisement — Work  of  the  pioneers — In- 
dians and  fever — Labor  difiiculties — William  Wheelwright  and  the 
railways  of  South  America — Some  details  of  a  notable  career — Indus- 
trial concessions  and  feats — The  first  South  American  railway — A 
Chilean  enterprise — Wheelwright's  scientific  attainments — His  degree 
of  fame — Railway  enterprise  in  Paraguay — The  development  of  the 
Argentine  railways — A  modest  beginning — Eff"ect  on  land  values — 
The  first  railways  of  Uruguay — Of  Venezuela — The  first  cables  and 
tramways — Some  modem  feats  of  the  South  American  railway  enter- 
prise— Magnitude  of  the  general  industrial  achievements. 

UNDOUBTEDLY  some  of  the  most  monumental 
work  achieved  by  the  British  in  South  America 
has  been  in  connection  with  communications  and 
transport.  Indeed  the  shipping,  railway — and,  in  a  lesser 
degree,  the  tramway — enterprise  of  the  British  in  the 
Southern  Continent  has  every  right  to  be  regarded  with 
deep  pride  by  the  nation  in  general. 

We  may  begin  with  the  shipping  industry,  since  that  is 
primarily  concerned  with  the  coasts  of  the  continent,  and 
we  may  subsequently  proceed  to  its  inland  heart  by  means 
of  the  railways ! 

It  is  somewhat  curious  that  the  west  coast  of  South 
America  should  have  had  the  advantage  of  a  steamer  con- 
nection with  Europe  for  so  many  years  before  a  similar 

512 


IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  513 

benefit  was  enjoyed  by  the  far  less  remote  east  coast. 
One  of  the  chief  reasons  for  this  undoubtedly  lay  in  the 
political  stability  of  Chile,  and  the  confusion  that  pre- 
vailed at  the  time  in  the  young  river  Plate  States;  al- 
though Brazil,  it  must  be  said,  was  entirely  free  from  this 
state  of  affairs. 

The  full  credit  for  the  introduction  of  steam  naviga- 
tion into  the  Pacific  must  be  given  to  Mr.  William  Wheel- 
wright, a  very  notable  North  American  steam  pioneer, 
who  is  referred  to  at  some  length  later.  Wheelwright, 
having  in  1833  obtained  the  necessary  concessions  from 
the  Chilean  and  Peruvian  governments,  came  to  England 
to  establish  a  company  for  the  running  of  the  steamers. 
He  found  the  city  of  London  in  an  unresponsive  mood. 
For  years  his  efforts  to  overcome  its  apathy  in  this  par- 
ticular direction  were  unsuccessful.  At  length  he  had 
the  good  fortune  to  meet  Lord  Abinger,  who  entered 
warmly  into  the  project.  In  1839  the  company  was 
formed,  and  two  steamers,  each  of  750  tons  and  180  horse- 
power, were  built. 

This  tardy  response,  however,  had  set  the  whole  en- 
terprise in  peril.  There  was  no  time  to  be  lost  if  the 
first  steamer  were  to  arrive  in  a  Chilean  port  within  the 
period  of  time  stipulated  in  the  concession  granted  by 
the  Chileans  so  many  years  before !  The  new  enterprise 
was  known  as  the  Pacific  Steam  Navigating  Company, 
and  it  was  in  1840  that  its  first  steamers,  the  Peru  and 
the  Chili,  drove  southwards  on  their  way  to  the  Pacific 
Ocean  with  not  an  hour  to  spare ! 

An  arbitrary  delay  of  fourteen  days  enforced  by  the 
Brazilian  Government  in  the  harbor  of  Rio  de  Janeiro 
put  all  hope  of  success  out  of  the  question,  and  ultimately 
the  vessels  arrived  off  the  Chilean  coast  exactly  thirteen 
days  after  the  stipulated  time-limit  of  years  had  ex- 
pired !  Fortunately  the  Chilean  Government  was  keenly 
alive  to  the  benefits  promised  by  this  sendee,  and  re- 
newed for  ten  years  those  privileges  which  have  ever 


514     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

since  been  enjoyed  by  the  Pacific  Steam  Navigation  Com- 
pany. 

Considering  that  the  enterprise  was  in  its  infancy,  these 
early  privileges  were  liberal.  The  Chilean  government 
granted  an  annual  subsidy  of  £12,000  for  the  direct  steam 
communication  with  England.  At  a  later  period  the 
Pacific  Steam  Navigation  Company  in  connection  with 
the  Royal  Mail  Steam  Packet  Company  entered  into  a 
contract  with  the  British  Government  for  the  fortnightly 
conveyance  of  mails  between  Panama  and  Valparaiso. 

Shortly  after  1850  the  Pacific  Steam  Navigation  Com- 
pany had  on  the  West  Coast  of  South  America  the  follow- 
ing vessels : 

Tons  Horse-power 

Lima 1,100  400 

Bogota  1,100  400 

Santiago    1,100  400 

Bolivia    800  280 

New  Granada    600  200 

Valdivia    700  180 

Osprey    300  100 

So  much  for  the  inauguration  of  the  British  steamer 
enterprise  in  the  Pacific.  In  the  Atlantic — owing  to  the 
disturbed  political  condition  of  the  river  Plate  States 
that  has  already  been  referred  to — the  chief  freight  and 
passenger  traffic  was  almost  entirely  confined  to  the 
Brazilian  ports. 

Towards  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  a  serious 
competitive  element  entered  into  this  commerce.  The  ten 
years  between  1840  and  1850  were  apparently  somewhat 
critical  ones  for  the  British  shipping  trade  with  Brazil. 
During  this  period  the  value  of  the  freights  carried  re- 
mained stationary  at  an  annual  figure  of  some  three  and 
a  half  millions  sterling.  A  stagnation  of  this  kind  could 
entail  nothing  else  but  a  serious  lagging  behind  in  the 
general  progress,  and  actually  nearly  all  the  advance  in 
tonnage  during  this  decade  was  snapped  up  by  the  North 


IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  515 

American  clippers,  who  were  making  a  bold  bid  for  the 
trade. 

Nevertheless,  it  is  evident  that  some  enterprising  spirits 
were  abroad  on  the  British  side  from  the  fact  that  in  1844 
a  Captain  Liot  was  commissioned  by  the  Royal  Mail 
Steam  Packet  Company  to  examine  the  isthmus  of  Darien 
with  a  view  of  linking  the  two  oceans  by  means  of  a 
macadamized  road  or  a  railway.  But  the  British  Govern- 
ment, it  appears,  refused  to  tlirow  in  its  influence  in  favor 
of  the  project,  and,  owing  chiefly  to  this  discouragement, 
the  scheme  fell  through. 

To  the  southward  of  this  an  important  event  was  soon 
destined  to  come  about.  Truly  the  influence  of  steam  has 
been  further-reaching  than  even  the  most  inveterate  trav- 
eler imagines !  What  might  have  occurred  had  the  con- 
test between  the  British  and  North  Americans  been  left 
to  the  "windjammers,"  and  had  the  decision  remained 
with  canvas,  might  possibly  have  given  food  for  some  un- 
pleasant reading  to-day.  It  was,  however,  at  the  critical 
moment  that  Great  Britain  launched  out  boldly  into  a 
new  enterprise,  and  in  1850  the  Eoyal  Mail  Steam  Packet 
Company  extended  its  field,  and  established  a  new  and 
southern  connection  with  Brazil  and  the  river  Plate. 

From  that  moment  the  advance  of  North  American 
shipping  in  South  America  was  doomed.  Dozens  of 
prominent  men  in  the  United  States,  foreseeing  this, 
strongly  advocated  the  founding  of  a  rival  steamship 
line.  This  move,  indeed  was  urged  with  an  almost  pas- 
sionate intensity  by  those  patriotic,  practical  and  shrewd 
missionaries,  Messrs.  Kidder  and  Fletcher. 

But  nothing  materialized.  The  North  Americans  began 
to  get  into  the  habit — of  which  they  are  only  now  begin- 
ning to  break  themselves — of  going  from  New  York  to 
South  America  via  Southampton.  British  imports  be- 
gan to  spring  up  by  leaps  and  bounds,  and  in  five  years 
the  trade  between  Great  Britain  and  Brazil  had  more  than 
doubled  itself. 


516     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

Much  of  this  advance,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  was  due  to 
the  enormous  increase  in  the  coffee  trade,  which  the  ad- 
vantages of  steam  carriage  now  enabled  the  British  to 
control.  The  great  growth  of  this  trade  will  be  evident 
from  the  following  figures: 

British  exports  in  coffee  in: 


Year  Lhs. 

1852  3,000,000 

1853  52,000,000 

1854  59,000,000 

1855  112,000,000 

These  figures  are  sufficiently  striking  to  excuse  the  re- 
sort to  the  somewhat  reprehensible  tabular  form! 

This  period,  indeed,  was  a  notable  one  for  British 
commerce  with  South  America,  as  the  increase  in  the  com- 
bined imports  and  exports  between  Great  Britain  and 
Brazil  will  show,  for  in  1855  these  had  advanced  from  the 
average  of  three  and  a  half  sterling  that  had  prevailed 
between  1840  and  1850  to  a  total  of  £8,162,455. 

The  first  steamship  service  instituted  by  the  Eoyal 
Mail  Steam  Packet  Company  was  a  monthly  one  from 
Southampton  to  Eio  de  Janeiro,  at  which  port  passengers 
for  the  river  Plate  were  transshipped  into  a  smaller 
steamer.  The  ball  having  thus  been  set  rolling,  it  was 
not  long  before  active  competition  arose,  and  in  1853  a 
rival  company  was  formed  to  start  a  regular  steamship 
service  between  Liverpool  and  the  river  Plate. 

In  those  early  days  Liverpool  would  seem  to  have  out- 
rivaled Southampton  in  the  tonnage  employed  in  the  voy- 
ages to  the  river  Plate.  In  1835  the  trade  between  the 
Mersey  and  the  southern  ports  called  for  the  employment 
of  sixty-four  vessels,  the  combined  tonnage  of  which 
amounted  to  11,850  tons — about  the  dimensions,  that  is 
to  say,  of  a  very  moderate-sized  liner  of  to-day !  The  cor- 
responding tonnage  of  the  Port  of  London,  however  did 
not  amount  to  the  half  of  this. 


EARLY   TVl'E    OK    KOVAL    STEAM    PACKET   COMPANY    SHIP 


A    MODKKN    ItUlTlSlI    SOUTH    AMERICAN    SHIP 


IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  517 

The  costliness  of  the  early  ocean  mails  between  Great 
Britain  and  the  river  Plate  was  sufficient  to  make  the 
art  of  letter-writing  a  luxury.  So  far  as  Uruguay  was 
concerned,  it  was  claimed  in  1854  that  this  disadvantage 
had  been  removed,  when  the  postal  rates  were  lowered 
to  two  shillings  an  ounce,  with  an  increased  ratio  of  cost 
for  letters  exceeding  four  ounces!  From  this  it  will  be 
realized  that,  even  after  these  much  praised  reductions 
had  been  affected,  the  cheapness  of  the  correspondence 
with  Uruguay  at  that  period  was  only  relative!  The 
charges  in  connection  with  the  Brazilian  mails  were 
equally  heavy.  Postage  between  this  empire  and  Great 
Britain  was  at  one  time  2/7  for  anything  up  to  half  an 
ounce  in  weight,  and  even  in  the  late  1870 's,  the  same 
amount  could  not  be  sent  under  the  cost  of  a  shilling. 

Until  the  middle  of  the  seventies  the  British  postoffice 
had  a  branch  of  its  own  in  Rio  de  Janeiro.  By  this 
means  the  British  dealt  directly  with  the  mails  of  their 
own  nation,  which  did  not  pass  through  the  hands  of  the 
Brazilian  authorities.  This,  of  course,  created  an  un- 
usual international  situation,  which  could  not  continue 
when  Brazil  had  attained  to  its  maturity  as  a  state.  A 
similar  postal  arrangement  existed  in  the  early  days  of 
the  river  Plate  countries. 

The  work  of  the  British  railway  companies  in  South 
America  should,  as  I  have  remarked  before,  stand  as  an 
everlasting  monument  to  British  enterprise  in  that  con- 
tinent. Its  broader  aspects  have  never,  I  think,  been 
sufficiently  acknowledged  by  the  world  in  general.  It  is 
difficult  to  believe  that  the  British  prestige  in  the  southern 
continent  could  have  maintained  its  height  had  it  not  been 
for  those  great  systems  of  traffic  which  have  been  at  hand 
to  bear  witness  to  an  efficiency  and  an  organizing  power 
which  has  been  by  no  means  so  patent  in  many  other 
branches  of  our  industries. 

It  is  the  traveler's  privilege  to  indulge  in  an  occasional 
mild  grumble — a  right  which  is,  so  to  speak,  thrown  in 


518     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

with  the  ticket — and  South  America  provides  no  excep- 
tion to  this  rule;  at  the  same  time,  speaking  generally, 
the  working  of  the  various  British  companies  does  extort 
admiration,  both  voluntary  and  unwilling,  from  all  classes 
and  nationalities  in  that  continent. 

As  a  national  asset,  and,  more,  as  a  national  advertise- 
ment, the  value  of  these  railways  is  not  to  be  under- 
estimated, even  when  harvests  fail  and  dividends  fall. 
It  would,  I  think,  be  a  bad  day  for  British  enterprise 
should  the  work  of  the  pioneers  and  of  the  present  organ- 
izers pass  into  other  hands.  Certainly  the  results  of  any 
revolution  of  the  kind  would  be  dramatic  enough  in  South 
America.  However  profitable  a  substitution  of  control 
might  prove  to  certain  groups,  and  however  pleasing  a 
state  appropriation  might  be  to  the  patriotic  spirit  of 
the  various  republics,  the  changing  of  the  present  situa- 
tion would  surely  prove  to  many  that  the  substance  of 
experience  and  efficiency  is  better  than  the  shadow  of 
unduly  eager  speculation  or  of  untried  new  endeavor. 
If  this  sound  too  complacent,  the  failing  must  be  con- 
doned by  a  survey  of  the  general  South  American  situa- 
tion, where  at  the  present  moment  we  have  too  little  cause 
to  congratulate  our  enterprise. 

Probably  no  work  on  South  America  would  afford  more 
interesting  reading  than  one  describing  the  experiences 
of  the  railroad  pioneers  of  that  continent.  Decidedly 
the  triumphs  and  tragedies  of  surveying  and  construction 
camps,  if  conscientiously  told,  would  fill  as  much  space  as 
an  ordinary  encyclopaedia.  It  is  true  that  the  men  who 
now  strike  out  in  front  of  the  lengthening  lines,  and 
plunge  into  the  unknown  that  lurks  beyond  railhead,  need 
no  longer — except  in  the  rarest  instances — trouble  their 
heads  about  the  possibility  of  Indian  attack.  But  this 
particular  peril  has  never  loomed  very  large  in  the  South 
American  railway  world.  Fever  has  claimed  a  thousand 
victims  where  the  Indians  of  the  center  and  north  have 
scarcely  succeeded  in  murdering  one.    Among  the  bones 


IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  519 

of  those  who  have  died  of  yellow  fever,  blackwater,  beri- 
beri, and  the  like,  the  few  skull  trophies  which  have  hung 
in  the  forest  dwellings  of  the  Indians  would  indeed  be  as 
needles  among  haystacks ! 

The  task  of  the  British  railway  engineer  in  South  Amer- 
ica has  always  been  a  difficult  one  compared  with  that  of 
the  other  employers  of  out-door  labor.  The  British 
estanciero  in  the  river  Plate  countries  has  its  local  peones 
to  work  for  him,  and,  if  he  remain  ignorant  of  their  tem- 
peramental peculiarities,  the  fault  is  his  own.  The  same 
applies  to  the  owners  of  Chilean,  Peruvian,  or  Bolivian 
haciendas,  to  the  Brazilian  cotf  ee  and  sugar  planters,  and, 
in  fact,  to  the  employer  of  agricultural  and  mining  laboi 
throughout  the  continent. 

But  the  railway  construction  engineer,  although  he  is 
at  least  as  much  concerned  with  labor  as  any  of  these,  is 
in  a  very  difficult  case.  It  is  his  fate  to  be  always  in 
command  of  scratch  labor  crews.  He  is  largely  at  the 
mercy  of  labor  conditions  in  other  parts  of  the  continent, 
and  even  of  the  world  in  general.  It  is  part  of  his  ''job" 
to  adapt  himself  to  the  peculiarities  of  white,  mestizo, 
yellow  and  black  labor.  Than  this  nothing  can  impose 
a  severer  test  of  his  powers  of  leadership  and  diplomacy. 

When  the  line  is  completed,  and  the  engineer  glides  to 
and  fro  along  it  in  the  private  car  that  is  his  second  home, 
he  is  doubtless  an  object  of  envy  to  many.  But  it  may 
be  taken  for  granted  that  he  has  deserved  every  square 
inch  of  this  luxury,  and  is  still  earning  it ! 

We  may  now  revert  to  the  infancy  of  this  great  British 
railway  enterprise  in  South  America.  One  of  the  most 
remarkable  men  who  had  to  do  with  its  birth  was  William 
Wheelwright.  It  was  the  State  of  Massachusetts  that 
saw  Wheelwright's  birth  in  1798,  but  it  was  in  London 
that  he  died  seventy-five  years  later.  So  much  of  his 
astonishing  initiative  and  vigor  was  employed  in  the  serv- 
ice of  the  British  that  considerably  more  than  a  passing 
reference  is  due  to  him  in  these  pages. 


520      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

From  the  records  of  the  rapidly  budding  South  Amer- 
ican industries  of  the  early  and  mid-nineteenth  century 
Wheelwright's  name  flashes  out  over  and  over  again — 
and  nearly  always  from  the  very  summit  of  some  monu- 
mental conception  of  the  world  of  enterprise. 

Concessions  of  vast  importance  seemed  to  drop  as  plen- 
tifully as  blackberries  into  Wheelwright's  mouth.  At 
least  such  traces  of  his  work  as  crop  up  might  well  give 
this  impression  to  the  casual  follower  of  these  records — 
who  may  not  be  aware  that  a  valuable  concession  is  not 
the  kind  of  fruit  that  falls !  Most  decidedly  it  has  to  be 
climbed  for,  and  picked ! 

But  Wheelwright  must  not  for  one  moment  be  con- 
fused with  the  ordinary  concession-hunter,  notwith- 
standing his  marked  success  in  this  direction — which, 
after  all  was  only  the  logical  result  of  his  general  abilities. 
It  was  Wheelwright  who,  assisted  by  the  Chilean  and 
Peruvian  governments,  as  we  have  already  seen,  founded 
the  Pacific  Steam  Navigation  Company,  It  was  Wheel- 
wright who  obtained  in  Argentina  the  concessions  for  the 
Ensenada  Railway,  the  Eosario  and  Cordoba  railway,  the 
Central  Argentine  railway,  and  numerous  other  enter- 
prises of  the  kind.  But  Wheelwright  achieved  more  than 
this.  His  name  has  a  great  claim  on  posterity  as  being 
that  of  the  founder  of  the  first  railway  in  South  America. 
This  was  the  Chilean  line  between  Caldera  and  Copiapo, 
which  was  opened  on  Christmas  Day,  1852,  the  first  loco- 
motive on  the  system  being  driven  by  an  engineer  of  the 
name  of  0  'Donovan. 

This  venture  met  with  hearty  support  from  the  Chilean 
notabilities.  To  those  acquainted  with  the  names  of  the 
Chilean  aristocracy  this  will  be  clear  when  the  following 
list  of  shareholders  is  given:  Gallo,  Edwards,  Carvallo, 
Subercaseaux,  Varas,  Vega,  Tocornal,  Cifuentes,  Montt, 
Carril,  Cousino,  the  last  shareholder  being  Wheelwright 
himself. 

The  Senor  Edwards,  it  may  be  mentioned,  whose  name 


lOREST   CLEARING   IN    SOUTH    AMERICA 


RAILROAD    CONSTKl  C  TION    IN    .S(HTH    AMERICA 


IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  521 

appears  second  in  the  list,  was  the  son  of  an  English  gen- 
tleman who  took  part  on  the  Chilean  side  in  the  war  of 
liberation,  and  became  a  Chilean.  The  latter 's  great 
grandson  is  Senor  Agustin  Edwards,  the  well-known 
Chilean  statesman,  and  the  present  highly  esteemed  min- 
ister-plenipotentiary in  London. 

Wheelwright's  talents  were  not  confined  to  the  business 
side  of  his  profession,  although  he  afterwards  became  a 
partner  of  Mr.  (afterwards  Lord)  Brassey's,  the  firm  be- 
ing known  as  Brassey,  Withes,  and  Wheelwright.  His 
scientific  attainments  were  marked,  and  he  was  an  expert 
in  territory.  Thus  in  1860,  in  his  character  of  F.E.G.S. 
we  find  him  reading  to  the  Royal  Geographical  Society  a 
paper  on  a  proposed  railway  across  the  Andes,  from 
Caldera  to  Rosario  via  Cordoba.  It  is  said  to  have  been 
Wheelwright  himself,  moreover,  who  discovered  the 
Chilean  coal  field  at  Talcahuano,  which  has  subsequently 
played  so  important  a  part  in  the  steam  traffic  of  these 
regions. 

Possibly  Wheelwright's  fame  as  an  industrial  pioneer 
is  wider  than  I  suspect.  It  is  true  that  Valparaiso  has 
raised  a  statue  to  him,  and  that  his  name  is  familiar 
enough  in  Chilean  print — there  are  some  excellent  notes 
concerning  him  in  Seiaor  Santiago  Marin  Vicuila's  Los 
Ferrocarriles  de  Chile.  But  it  is  surprising  how  seldom 
his  name  occurs  in  English  books,  and  how  many  indexes 
one  may  ransack  for  a  reference  to  him,  only  to  draw 
blank! 

It  is  not  a  little  remarkable  that  in  a  hermit  state  such 
as  was  Paraguay  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century 
railway  enterprise  should  have  begun  as  early  as  the  year 
1854.  In  that  year  the  most  genial  of  Paraguay's  three 
autocrats,  Carlos  Antonio  Lopez,  ordered  that  his  coun- 
try was  to  be  provided  with  railways.  Three  British 
engineers,  Messrs.  Burrel,  Valpy  and  Padison  were  en- 
gaged for  the  purpose,  and,  in  order  that  the  construction 
might  be  conducted  on  the  accepted  Paraguayan  model  of 


522     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

the  mid-nineteenth  century,  three  battalions  of  infantry 
were  placed  at  their  disposal  to  act  as  navvies. 

As  a  result,  some  seventy-two  kilometres  of  rail  had 
been  laid  in  1861,  when  the  line  was  opened  from  Asuncion 
as  far  as  Paraguari.  The  advent  to  power  of  Francisco 
Solano  Lopez  brought  about  a  period  of  war  which  inter- 
rupted all  such  enterprise,  and  it  was  not  until  1886  that 
work  was  resumed  on  the  line. 

Little  by  little  the  network  of  railway  lines  extended 
itself  over  South  America.  The  following  report,  pub- 
lished by  Mr.  C.  Frederic  Woodgate  in  1877,  will  show  the 
beginning  of  various  of  the  companies  in  Argentina,  the 
chief  railway  country  in  the  Continent. 

In  1877  the  situation  of  the  Argentina  railways  was  as 
follows : 

Work     Miles  Proprietors 

begun 

Western    1857  150  Provincial    Government 

of  Buenos  Aires  (aft- 
erwards British). 

Northern    1862  18  London  Company. 

Great  Southern 1864  202  London  Company. 

Boca  and  Ensenada 1863  37  London  Company. 

'Central  Argentine   1863  245  London  Company. 

Villa      Maria      and     Rio 

Cuarto    1870  82  National  government. 

Cordova  and  Tucuman  . .  1873  336  National  government. 

Rio  Cuarto  and  Mercedes .  1873  76  National  government. 

Eastern  Argentine  1873  96  London  Company. 

Buenos    Aires    and    Cam- 

pana    . . , 1873  42  London  Company. 

The  first  of  these,  the  Western  Railway  was  begun  un- 
der distinctly  modest  auspices  so  far  as  capital  is  con- 
cerned. A  sum  of  £28,000  sufficed  to  start  the  venture, 
an  amount  to  which  the  Argentine  Government  subse- 
quently added  the  loan  of  the  equivalent  of  £24,000.  In 
1864  we  find  the  officials  claiming  with  pride  that  the 
trains  on  their  system  frequently  carried  over  three  thou- 


IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  523 

sand  passengers  in  a  single  day — an  estimate  that  might 
cause  some  chagrin  to  the  managers  of  to-day ! 

Incidentally  it  may  be  remarked  that,  as  a  result  of  the 
construction  of  this  line,  some  of  the  land  through  which 
it  passed  increased  in  value  fifty-fold.  At  a  later  date, 
after  the  Great  Southern  Railway  had  opened  the  south- 
ern Buenos  Aires  country  which  General  Roca  had  freed 
from  the  Indian  peril,  land  which  had  been  obtainable 
for  £70  the  square  league  less  than  eight  years  afterwards 
was  worth  £3,000  the  league ! 

It  was  in  the  1870 's  that  some  of  the  most  notable 
strides  were  undertaken  in  the  great  public  services 
throughout  South  America.  Even  before  this,  however, 
the  little  Republic  of  Uruguay  had  made  its  first  ac- 
quaintance with  the  iron  road.  The  first  railway  to  be 
opened  here  was  the  Central  Uruguay.  This  was  begun 
in  1868,  and  a  short  section  of  eleven  miles  was  already 
being  worked  in  1869. 

Four  years  later,  in  1873,  the  British  turned  their  at- 
tention to  the  north  of  the  continent,  and  built  the  first 
railway  in  Venezuela.  This  was  known  as  the  Bolivar 
Railway,  and  was  originally  constructed  to  connect  the 
town  of  Tucacas  with  the  copper  mines  of  Aroa.  The 
line  was  subsequently  extended  to  Barquisimeto. 

Incidentally,  too,  it  may  be  remarked  that  it  was  at  this 
period  that  the  complementary  public  services  came  into 
being.  Thus  the  first  South  American  cable  was  laid  in 
1874.  It  connected  Lisbon  with  Pernambuco,  and  its 
3,866  miles  ran  by  way  of  Madeira  and  St.  Vincent.  By 
the  year  1877,  moreover,  a  proof  of  the  strides  of  the 
young  tramway  industry  was  evident  in  Buenos  Aires, 
where  the  British  Companies  owned  a  length  of  fifty-four 
miles,  of  tram-lines,  on  which  about  one  hundred  cars 
were  working. 

It  is  quite  out  of  the  question  to  attempt  to  deal  here 
with  the  more  recent  progress  of  the  British  owned  rail- 
ways in  South  America.     Some  of  the  feats,  it  is  true. 


524     BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

are  of  world-wide  importance.  The  linking  up  of  Buenos 
Aires  with  Valparaiso — and  consequently,  of  the  Atlantic 
with  the  Pacific — the  establishment  of  railway  communica- 
tion between  Rio  and  Brazil  and  Montevideo  in  Uruguay ; 
between  Buenos  Aires  and  Asuncion,  the  capital  of  Para- 
guay;  the  construction  of  the  famous  Oroza  railway,  which 
crosses  the  Peruvian  Andes  at  a  height  of  nearly  sixteen 
thousand  feet;  the  successful  completion  of  the  remark- 
able Madeira-Mamore  railway,  the  pet  project  of  that 
most  worthy  North  American  successor  of  Wheelwright, 
Colonel  Church,  by  which  the  terrors  of  a  fever-laden 
series  of  Amazonian  torrents  were  for  ever  done  away 
with — these  alone  are  achievements  which  have  called  into 
being  some  of  the  greatest  engineering  skill  of  the  age,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  assistance  of  such  ambitious  instru- 
ments as  steam  ferries  for  the  conveyance  of  trains  across 
rivers,  and  similar  undertakings  by  means  of  which  the 
more  stupendous  stretches  of  nature  have  been  harnessed. 
Much  the  same  may  be  said  of  the  port-works,  river 
traffic,  and  municipal  undertakings  in  which  the  British 
have  specialized.  A  book  might  comfortably  be  written 
on  each  subject,  and,  indeed,  so  far  as  the  amount  of  print 
is  concerned,  many  have  been! 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

TO-DAY   AND   TO-MOKKOW   IN   SOUTH   AMERICA 

The  Work  of  the  British  in  the  Continent — Financial  achievements — Man- 
ner in  which  the  efforts  have  been  carried  out — Policy  of  the  British 
from  the  Elizabethan  Age  onwards — Relations  with  the  South  Amer- 
icans— The  latter's  experiences  of  the  Englishman  as  an  enemy  and  as 
a  friend — The  Prussian  Alfinger — Tastes  of  the  South  Americans — 
Some  matters  of  appreciation — Confidence  between  the  Iberians  and 
the  British — Guiana  and  the  Falklands — Progress  of  British  trade — 
Eatio  of  increase  compared  with  that  of  Germany — Reasons  for  a 
specious  growth  and  real  decline — Philosophy  of  the  British  manu- 
facturer— His  relations  with  his  agents  abroad — Questions  of  market- 
ing goods — Some  artificial  disadvantages — Necessity  of  organization 
on  a  large  scale — An  instance  in  the  shipping  world — Result  of  retalia- 
tory measures — The  British  commercial  traveler  in  South  America — 
Suggestions  concerning  a  suitable  type  of  man — The  intimate  history 
of  a  warship  contract — The  Englishman  not  an  opportunist — Advan- 
tages and  disadvantages  of  this  circumstance — Teutonic  national  ma- 
chinery employed  in  support  of  commerce — The  value  of  official  flattery 
— Necessity  for  British  organization  on  a  comprehensive  scale — Ques- 
tions of  diplomacy  and  diplomats — Suggestions  concerning  a  special 
type  of  attache — Evidences  of  German  prosperity  in  South  America — 
Latin- American  sentiment — Opinions  of  a  Brazilian  merchant — Prob- 
able future  German  commercial  campaign — The  North  Americans  as 
competitors — Relations  of  these  with  the  Latin  Americans — South 
America  and  British  imperial  preference — Britain's  task  as  an  ally. 

IN  reviewing  the  work  of  the  British  in  South  America 
it  is  fortunately  unnecessary  to  enter  into  a  maze  of 
statistics.  These  have  been  so  clearly  set  out  in  doz- 
ens of  publications,  official  and  otherwise,  that  any  mass 
of  detail  would  not  justify  its  passage  in  this  particular 
prose  vehicle. 

Briefly,  very  nearly  one  hundred  years  ago  two  or  three 
million  pounds  passed  from  Lombard  Street  to  the  newly 
founded  South  American  States.  This  financial  assist- 
ance came  to  them  when  they  were  still  in  the  act  of  reel- 
ing to  their  feet,  and  before  the  smoke  of  the  War  of  In- 
dependence had  finally   rolled  clear   of  the   Continent. 

525 


526      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

To-day  the  British  investments  in  South  America  prob- 
ably amount  to  some  seven  hundred  millions  sterling. 
On  the  face  of  it,  this  situation  might  well  seem  not 
merely  satisfactory,  but  triumphant.  In  many  respects 
it  justifies  the  first  adjective;  but  the  second,  I  think, 
could  apply  only  if  the  rest  of  the  world  had  remained 
impassive  spectators  of  our  industry  as  we  piled  up  our 
interests  and  securities  in  the  great  Latin  continent. 

There  is,  moreover,  another  view  of  the  question,  which 
has  so  far  been  ventilated  by  our  enemies  rather  than  by 
ourselves,  but  which  is  by  no  means  unworthy  of  atten- 
tion. A  boat  may  be  rowed  for  seven  hundred  miles  up  a 
river  to  a  point  where  the  tiring  oarsmen  slacken  and 
fail :  then  it  will  be  of  merely  historic  consolation  to  the 
inmates  to  reflect  that,  the  farther  upstream  the  craft 
has  won  its  way,  the  more  numerous  are  the  down-river 
reaches  along  which  it  has  to  drift. 

But  this  pessimistic  metaphor  is  premature,  certainly 
in  this  chapter,  and  probably  in  the  world  of  affairs.  It 
is  essential  in  the  first  place  to  see  by  what  means  the 
British  progress  in  South  America  has  been  achieved, 
from  its  earliest  beginnings  to  the  present  day.  We 
at  once  find  ourselves  confronted  by  a  remarkable  chain 
of  events,  every  one  of  which  illustrates  the  desultory  na- 
ture of  both  our  hostilities  and  friendly  undertakings  in 
South  America.  Almost  all  our  achievements  there  have 
been  the  work  of  free  lances.  This  has  been  so  since  the 
days  of  Elizabeth,  who  on  the  one  hand  gave  Drake  god- 
speed and  scarfs  embroidered  with  well-wishes,  and  on 
the  other  condoled  with  Philip  of  Spain  on  the  deeds  of 
her  irrepressible  sailors!  The  policy  of  James,  feebly 
parodying  the  vigorous  partnership  of  Elizabeth,  gave  a 
grim  end  to  Raleigh.  Later,  many  an  honest  sailor  had 
to  take  his  chance  whether  he  were  regarded  by  Spain  as 
a  lawful  enemy,  a  dubious  privateer,  or  a  wholly  damnable 
bucaneer.  His  mutable  status  depended  on  the  course 
of  the  relations  between  England  and  Spain — a  kaleido- 


TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW  527 

scopic  procession  of  sentiments  concerning  which  he, 
afloat  in  the  Southern  oceans,  could  not  be  expected  to 
keep  himself  posted.  The  dawn  itself  of  the  freedom  of 
Spanish  South  America  was  heralded  by  a  stroke  of  this 
same  free-lance  policy.  For  the  successes  and  disasters 
of  the  British  invasion  of  the  Rio  de  la  Plata  in  1806 — 
which  played  so  notable  a  part  in  instilling  the  idea  of 
independence  into  the  South  American  mind — were  the 
result  of  an  inspiration  on  the  part  of  the  British  naval 
commander,  Sir  Home  Popham,  who  found  himself  with 
some  ships  and  troops  to  spare  after  the  capture  of  Cape 
Town. 

The  War  of  Liberation  itself  affords  a  final  instance  of 
the  consistently  impassive  official  attitude  toward  South 
America.  At  that  period  the  British  Government,  main- 
taining a  correct  neutrality,  provided  nothing  beyond  a 
benevolent  sympathy.  The  British  sailors  and  soldiers 
who  enlisted  in  the  patriot  cause  provided  themselves; 
and  such  men  as  Cochrane,  Guise,  Miller,  O'Brien,  and 
some  scores  of  others,  found  that  their  own  Government's 
attitude  toward  them  partook  of  the  Nelsonian  touch  of 
refusing  to  observe  what  ought  not  to  be  seen ! 

It  was  only  natural  that  the  first  trading  relations  of 
the  British  with  the  South  Americans  should  have  been  of 
an  individual  nature.  The  commercial  world  was  loosely 
knit  in  those  days,  and  it  was  in  the  age  when  private  in- 
itiative counted  that  the  prospering  British  coached  the 
South  Americans  from  the  status  of  pupils  to  that  of 
colleagues. 

England  had  well  earned  her  considerable  early  ad- 
vantages over  her  European  and  North  American  rivals. 
Her  political  and  militant  sympathies,  her  golden  assist- 
ance, and  the  advent  of  a  swarm  of  merchants  conveying 
cargoes  of  merchandise — all  this  while  the  yellow  and  red 
of  the  Spanish  standard  was  still  floating  over  the  last 
remnant  of  royal  territory,  the  castles  of  Callao — had 
won  for  the  British  a  place  in  the  esteem  of  the  South 


528      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

Americans  that  no  subsequent  international  vicissitudes 
have  succeeded  in  destroying.  It  was  in  cordial  circum- 
stances that  the  British  merchant  introduced  his  machin- 
ery, his  hard  and  soft  ware,  his  live  stock,  and  his  liquids, 
and  shipped  home  in  their  place  hides,  horns,  metals, 
sugar,  coffee,  and  the  general  produce  of  the  Continent : 
for,  since  the  sentiments  of  Brazil  resembled  those  of 
the  former  Spanish  colonies,  it  is  with  the  entire  con- 
tinent that  we  are  now  concerned.  It  was  surely  one  of 
the  anomalies  of  statesmanship  that  gained  for  England 
the  simultaneous  gratitude  of  Brazil  and  the  Spanish- 
speaking  States.  She  had  assisted  the  former  in  her 
step  from  a  royal  colony  to  a  kingdom ;  she  had  aided  the 
latter  to  divest  themselves  of  royalty  and  its  influence  by 
becoming  republics!  The  explanation  is  a  simple  one. 
These  divergent  processes  had  the  same  effect:  that  of 
throwing  open  the  South  American  ports  to  the  trade  of 
the  world. 

As  the  intercourse  between  the  British  and  the  South 
Americans  increased,  other  links  beyond  those  of  com- 
merce began  to  be  forged.  It  is  the  fashion  to  accuse  the 
Englishman  abroad  of  the  unsocial  crime  of  keeping  him- 
self to  himself.  This,  I  think,  must  apply  in  a  far  lesser 
degree  to  South  America  than  to  any  other  part  of  the 
world.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  average  Englishman 
in  South  America  entertains  an  affection  for  that  con- 
tinent and  its  inhabitants  deeper  than  the  inevitable  re- 
gard with  which  the  successful  man  contemplates  the 
source  of  his  wealth.  Intermarriage  has  been  frequent : 
common  interests  in  sports,  games,  pastoral,  and  ag- 
ricultural occupations  have  led  to  an  intimate  under- 
standing. 

Thus  we  arrive  at  the  general  relations  of  the  present 
day.  Without  an  over-indulgence  in  complacency,  they 
may  be  said  to  be  very  satisfactory.  The  average  Eng- 
lishman is  aware  that  he  does  not  sound  the  tempera- 
mental depths  of  the  average  South  American;  on  the 


TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW  529 

other  hand,  the  average  South  American  has  a  much 
shrewder  conception  of  the  Englishman  than  the  latter 
suspects.  It  is  true  that  for  generations  the  man  of  Iber- 
ian stock  took  some  pleasure  in  referring  to  the  North- 
erner as  the  loco  Inglez — the  mad  Englishman.  But  the 
adjective,  emitted  in  jocular  resignation,  was  devoid  of 
sting;  for  at  all  times  the  Iberian  considered  the  other  an 
honest  loco,  and  now  for  more  than  a  generation  he  has 
joined  him  in  his  madness — in  almost  all  its  forms,  from 
hygiene  and  social  clubs  to  the  cult  of  balls !  Moreover, 
is  not  the  word  of  an  Englishman — Palahra  de  un  Inglez! 
— an  oath  in  itself?  Is  not  the  expression  Hora  Inglessa 
an  appeal  to  punctuality  ? 

And — still  regarding  the  situation  from  the  point  of 
view  of  the  South  American — he  has  been  able  to  judge 
of  the  Englishman  as  an  enemy;  no  mean  test  of  a  man's 
w^orth.  When  Wliitelock's  ill-fated  expedition  left  the 
shores  of  the  river  Plate,  the  Government  of  the  invaded 
territories  had  already  bcome  national  rather  than  vice- 
regal. It  was  as  South  Americans  that  the  city  fathers 
of  Montevideo  offered  that  generous  tribute  to  the  de- 
parting British  troops,  an  address  that  acknowledged 
with  spontaneous  warmth  the  chivalry  of  the  army  of  oc- 
cupation, and  that  went  the  length  of  expressing  regret 
for  its  departure!  A  fine  testimonial  this — one  which 
would  not  have  been  applied,  say,  to  the  Prussian  Alfinger, 
who,  assisting  in  the  sixteen-century  Welser  colonization 
of  the  Continent,  made  a  practice,  when  on  the  march,  of 
cutting  off  the  heads  of  dying  members  of  the  Indian 
slave-gangs,  whose  necks  were  chained  to  a  common  steel 
rod,  and  by  this  practical  method  prevented  any  senti- 
mental delay  in  the  progress  of  the  party ! 

This  Alfinger  of  unsavory  memory,  dragged  in  here 
somewhat  by  his  grim  and  ghastly  heels,  opens  up  in  a 
not  inappropriate  fashion  one  of  the  main  objects  of  this 
chapter — the  question  of  the  respective  relations  with  the 
South  Americans  of  ourselves,  and  of  our  keenest  com- 


^30      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

petitors,  the  Germans.  Let  us  start  in  a  key  that  is 
justifiably  buoyant!  As  regards  mere  popularity,  it 
seems  to  me  that  we  have  little  to  fear.  The  piece  of 
eight  played  its  part  in  the  temporary  lease  of  part  of 
Venezuela  to  the  Prussian  Welsers,  and  it  is  very  little 
beyond  a  common  interest  in  the  dollar  which  is  respon- 
sible for  the  association  of  South  American  and  German 
to-day.  An  inherent  and  unquenchable  antagonism  exists 
between  the  arrogance  of  the  Prussian  and  the  easy  de- 
mocracy of  the  South  American.  One  very  clear  proof 
of  this  exists.  In  largely  increasing  numbers  the  South 
American  has  taken  to  visiting  Paris  and  Cannes,  London 
and  Eastbourne,  Switzerland,  Norway,  and  Egypt;  but 
— for  his  own  pleasure — never  Berlin !  The  lists  of  Eton 
and  other  schools  now  include  a  number  of  South  Ameri- 
cans— but  to  what  German  school  does  any  South  Ameri- 
can boy  go  for  the  building  up  of  his  character  and  tone  ? 
Those  who  have  visited  Teutonic  technical  colleges  have 
done  so  for  technical  purposes. 

Surely,  since  every  straw  counts,  we  may  even  take 
some  pride  in  having  induced  the  South  American  to 
follow  our  lead  in  such  matters  as  clothes,  games,  and 
household  arrangements.  I  have  had  the  honor  of  din- 
ing en  petit  comite  with  the  late  President  of  Argentina 
— an  old  member  of  the  Devonshire  Club — when  the  serv- 
ice was  carried  out  by  maidservants  in  English  caps  and 
aprons.  Now  is  not  this  in  its  way  as  high  a  compliment 
as  any  other? 

The  volatile  Iberian — as  sturdy  in  his  own  way  as  any 
other  race  of  the  earth — has,  we  flatter  ourselves,  a  stanch 
belief  in  the  good  faith  of  the  British.  On  this  head 
we  have  every  right  to  sound  a  trumpet  blast  or  two, 
for  in  this  case  the  proof  of  the  pudding  has  been  our 
willingness  to  respect  its  plums!  The  Iberian  is  noth- 
ing if  not  a  student  of  history,  and  he  remembers.  What 
of  Madeira?  Have  we  not  twice  occupied,  and  volun- 
tarily restored  that  tempting,  pleasant,  and  strategically 


TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW  531 

important  island?  Then  there  are  the  Falkland  Islands. 
Has  an  Argentine  statesman  lost  a  single  ministerial  wink 
of  sleep  on  account  of  our  possession  of  these  hills  and 
pastures  in  the  South  Atlantic?  What  of  Guiana,  too 
— a  colony  that,  logically,  should  be  deeply  unpopular  in 
the  Southern  continent,  since  it  is  one  of  the  last  two 
remaining  appanages  of  royalty  on  the  republican  main- 
land? Nevertheless,  British  Guiana,  a  tranquil  neigh- 
bor to  the  north  of  the  Latin  republics,  provokes  no 
shriek  even  from  Monroe's  sensitive  eagle.  But — if 
Raleigh's  territory  had  been  Prussian!  The  South 
Americans  are  sufficiently  alert  to  conceive  the  length  of 
the  tentacles  of  intrigue  that  would  have  wriggled  south- 
wards across  the  Continent ! 

In  fairness  to  the  Englishman  it  must  be  said  that 
during  a  hundred  years  not  only  has  he  maintained  his 
relations  with  the  inhabitants  of  the  various  South  Amer- 
ican republics,  he  has  improved  them. 

At  this  point  we  must  leave  the  bright  side  of  the  pic- 
ture. These  justifiable  trumpet  blasts  bring  us  to  the 
threshold  of  a  startling  and  unpleasant  anomaly.  Dur- 
ing these  recent  decades,  while  this  mutual  cordiality  has 
increased,  and  the  British  have  enjoyed  sentimental  ad- 
vantages over  every  nationality  save  the  Latins,  the  pro- 
portion of  British  trade  compared  with  that  of  the  rest 
of  the  world  has  decreased!  That  it  should  decrease  to 
a  certain  extent  was  inevitable — but  the  shrinkage  that 
has  actually  occurred  has  been  beyond  reasonable  expec- 
tation ! 

It  would  hardly  seem  that  the  point  is  a  debatable  one 
— though  there  are  some  who  profess  themselves  satisfied 
with  the  mere  fact  that  our  trade  with  South  America 
has  not  been  stagnant,  and  who  even  rejoice  in  an  in- 
crease in  our  exports  such  as  could  only  be  received  with 
legitimate  satisfaction  had  the  rest  of  the  world  stood 
still  in  the  meantime.  Such  a  frame  of  mind  will  not,  I 
think,  bear  much  investigation. 


532      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

There  is  no  need  to  plunge  here  into  any  of  the  count- 
less statistics  which  are  available  on  the  subject :  we  may 
take  our  exports  to  Brazil  as  a  typical  example.  In  1875 
we  sent  to  Brazil  practically  as  much  as  all  the  rest  of  the 
world  put  together.  To-day  our  proportion  of  the  goods 
shipped  to  Brazil  is  some  twenty-five  per  cent.  Since  it 
is  clearly  unreasonable  that  Great  Britain  should  expect 
to  continue  to  rival  the  bulk  of  the  rest  of  the  world's 
trade,  there  would  be  less  reason  for  complaint  concern- 
ing these  figures  had  the  bulk  of  the  increased  exports 
to  Brazil  been  divided  in  a  normal  fashion  among  the 
other  nations.  But  this  is  not  so.  In  1875  the  German 
exports  to  Brazil  amounted  barely  to  an  eighth  of  our 
own,  but  in  rather  more  than  twenty  years  she  had 
increased  these  figures  tenfold,  while  Great  Britain 
during  this  period  had  rather  more  than  doubled  her 
exports. 

Germany's  gains,  of  course,  have  not  continued  in  this 
phenomenal  ratio,  or,  instead  of  maintaining  the  lead. 
Great  Britain  would  have  lost  her  predominant  position 
many  years  ago.  Nevertheless,  the  general  advance  of 
the  Germans  in  exports  and  the  control  of  industrial  en- 
terprise has  continued  far  in  excess  of  our  own.  Viewed 
in  this  light,  our  trade  advance  in  South  America  loses 
much  of  its  glamour.  It  appears  only  too  clearly  as  a  lag- 
ging behind,  which,  if  the  existing  trend  be  continued  for 
long  enough,  must  end  in  collapse ;  for  who  now  can  doubt 
that  the  ultimate  aim  of  the  German  commercial  policy  in 
South  America  has  been,  not  division,  but  the  annihilation 
of  the  non-Teutonic! 

Moreover,  the  actual  process  must  be  far  more  rapid 
than  any  promised  by  mere  statistics ;  for  there  comes  a 
stage  in  commercial  war  when  strategic  advantages  have 
a  cumulative  effect.  Then  the  resistance  is  apt  to  crum- 
ble like  the  atoms  of  an  undermined  sand-castle  when  the 
waters  have  ceased  to  nibble,  and  begin  to  devour! 

It  is  possible,  apart  from  the  circumstances  of  the  war, 


BRIDGE  CONSTRUCTION    IN    SOUTH   AMERICA 


VIADUCT  CONSTRUCTION   IN    SOUTH   AMERICA 


TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW  533 

that  this  aggressive  policy  has  led  Germany  to  the  verge 
of  bankruptcy,  as  some  allege.  Even  so,  that  would  not 
return  to  us  the  volume  of  past  trade  that  the  policy  has 
lost  us. 

There  must  be  serious  reasons  for  this  specious  growth 
and  real  decline  which  during  the  last  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury has  occurred  in  the  face  of  a  favoring  situation. 
There  would  seem  to  be  two  main  causes.  The  first  has 
already  created  a  certain  amount  of  attention :  the  refusal 
of  many  British  manufacturers  to  adapt  themselves  to  a 
rapidly  altering  condition  of  affairs.  The  second  has  at- 
tracted less  notice,  but  is,  I  think,  as  important  in  its  own 
way  as  the  first.  This  is  the  continuance  of  that  free- 
lance policy  of  individual  effort  that,  as  I  have  tried  to 
show,  harks  back  to  the  days  of  Hawkins  and  Drake. 
Surely  under  present  conditions  this  is  as  obsolete  as  the 
walls  of  England  that  once  were  of  wood,  rifted  against 
the  scientifically  combined  groups  of  highly  organized 
competitors,  its  working  must  resemble  the  performance 
of  a  scratch  Association  football  team  against  the 
mathematical  precision  of  a  tried  professional  eleven. 

Let  us  consider  the  former  of  these  two  main  causes. 
The  obstinacy  of  many  British  manufacturers  would  seem 
to  be  a  thing  of  comparatively  recent  growth — probably  a 
fungus  on  the  tree  of  easy  prosperity.  Those  who  care 
to  peruse  the  experiences  of  the  British  travelers  in  South 
America  from  the  end  of  the  first  decade  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  up  to  rather  more  than  a  generation  ago 
cannot  fail  to  be  struck  by  the  copious  notes  and  inky 
exclamations  as  the  author  describes  the  picturesque 
knives  and  quaintly  romantic  spurs  that  come  frOm  Shef- 
field; the  bizarre  fabrics,  redolent  of  palm-trees,  guitars, 
and  starry  nights,  that  were  Lancashire's  contribution 
to  the  South,  and  a  hundred  other  articles  of  the  kind. 
Doubtless  a  shoddy  species  of  trade,  this,  but  at  least 
eloquent  of  enterprise  and  ingenuity ! 

One  is  occasionally  tempted  to  wonder  if  the  German 


534      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

of  to-day  be  not  in  the  mood  of  the  Mid-Victorian  English- 
man— minus  the  latter 's  sporting  propensities  and  con- 
science, and  plus  the  Prussian  cynical  contempt  of  any 
divine  or  human  convention  which  might  limit  his  chances 
of  success ! 

Certainly  the  Mid- Victorian  manufacturer  would  not 
have  accepted  the  present-day  situation  with  that  resigna- 
tion— approaching  indifference — evinced  by  his  succes- 
sor. In  the  course  of  time  certain  British  articles  have 
gone  by  the  board  in  South  America,  pushed  aside  by 
natural  forces.  It  was  the  climate  that  gave  light  Ger- 
man beers  the  victory  over  the  English  ales  that  once 
flooded  the  Continent — a  loss  to  the  British  that  was  sub- 
sequently more  than  retrieved  by  the  triumph  of  whisky. 
Such  circumstances  are  not  to  be  overcome ;  but  unavoid- 
able disasters  of  this  particular  kind  have  been  very  few 
and  far  between  in  the  history  of  British  trade  with  South 
America. 

Of  recent  years  it  is  only  too  lamentable  to  observe  how 
frequently  the  relations  between  the  British  manufacturer 
and  his  agent  abroad  resemble  those  between  a  motionless 
mule  and  a  dispirited  goad.  The  manufacturer  is  in- 
clined to  be  complacent  and  trite;  the  agent  tends  to  be- 
come irritated  and  bitter.  Which  of  the  two  has  reason 
on  his  side?  Not,  I  think,  the  manufacturer.  It  may 
appear  a  poor  calling  to  attempt  to  point  out  to  a  com- 
munity how  unjustified  is  its  content  with  its  situation. 
Nevertheless  in  this  case  the  microbe  of  dissatisfaction  is 
a  healthy  one,  and  the  sooner  it  is  injected  the  better  for 
the  manufacturer.  It  is  not  too  much  to  ask  of  him  that 
he  should  put  his  customer's  wants  before  his  own  views, 
that  he  should  supply  to  Brazil  axes  of  a  steel  tempered 
to  fell  the  tropical  iron-wood,  instead  of  the  English  oak ; 
that  he  should  discover  which  cloth  is  popular  in  Lima, 
and  which  in  London !  Does  it  savor  of  an  unreasonable 
pessimism  to  assert  that,  unless  he  act  on  some  such  prin- 
ciples as  these,  that  craft  of  his,  which  his  very  deliberate 


TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW  535 

paddling  now  just  succeeds  in  propelling  upstream,  will 
be  swept  rapidly  down  the  current? 

Let  us  suppose,  then,  the  very  reasonable  supposition 
that  we  are  in  a  position  to  supply  the  South  American 
(whose  sentiments  do  not  interfere  with  his  desire  to 
purchase  in  the  cheapest  and  most  practical  market)  with 
the  type  of  goods  he  requires,  on  terms  as  favorable  as 
those  offered  by  our  neighbors — if  we  fail  in  this,  is  there 
any  special  providence  available  to  produce  some  super- 
natural reason  why  we  should  not  shut  up  shop  ?  Let  us 
suppose,  further,  that  we,  as  sellers,  will  in  our  accounts 
yield  to  the  decimal  system,  to  the  local  customs,  cur- 
rency, and  prejudices,  and  render  all  the  other  minor 
matters  concessions  by  the  non-observance  of  which  we 
have  voluntarily  handicapped  our  trade.  What  has  hap- 
pened when  we  have  achieved  this! — We  have  merely 
placed  ourselves  on  a  footing  of  equality  with  our  com- 
petitors. The  actual  fight  to  maintain  our  proper  position 
in  the  South  American  trading  world  is  still  before  us. 

We  may  now  turn  to  the  second  of  the  two  main  causes 
of  the  present  unsatisfactory  position  of  British  trade 
with  South  America.  I  have  tried  to  show  that  in  the 
days  of  individual  competition  and  British  manufacturing 
enterprise — the  period  of  ''notions"! — ^nearly  all  the  cir- 
cumstances were  in  favor  of  the  British.  The  subsequent 
introduction  of  the  great  industrial  combinations  such  as 
are  in  existence  to-day  has  tended  toward  the  undermin- 
ing of  these  advantages.  Only  on  rare  occasions  have 
the  British  organized  their  resources  on  a  w^holesale  scale 
to  oppose  the  trusts  that  sprang  up  in  the  United  States, 
and  that  were  imitated  in  Germany.  Where  they  have, 
success  has  followed.  But  for  the  great  shipping  coop- 
eration effected  by  Sir  Owen  Philipps,  who  can  doubt  but 
that  the  grim  and  determined  onslaught  of  the  German 
shipo\vners  would  have  ended  in  the  fluttering  of  the  Red 
Ensign  over  fewer  and  smaller  decks  than  is  at  present 
the  case?    As  it  is,  the  stand  has  been  made  in  the  face 


536      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

of  a  hundred  tricks,  such  as  that  of  a  local  method  of 
tonnage  calculation  tending  in  the  announcements  to  in- 
flate the  dimensions  of  the  German  ships  at  the  expense 
of  the  British,  and  other  dubious  measures  of  this 
kind. 

It  would  seem  that  an  axiom  in  success  in  the  South 
America  of  to-day  is  that  an  undertaking  should  not  only 
be  efficient,  but  on  a  large  scale;  witness  the  deserved 
triumph  of  the  British  railway  methods  in  that  continent ! 
A  lesser  instance  is  to  be  met  with  in  the  success  which 
attended  the  foundation  of  the  large  British  stores  in 
Buenos  Aires.  There  are  times  "when  it  is  necessary  to 
think  imperially — outside  the  bounds  of  our  own  empire ! 
I  cannot  help  supposing  that,  had  the  British  meat-chill- 
ing companies  been  imbued  more  liberally  with  this  spirit, 
the  Stars  and  Stripes  w^ould  not  have  won  so  rapid  a 
victory  on  the  banks  of  the  river  Plate.  But  this  need 
of  combination  now  seems  so  clear,  and  it  is  one  which  is 
raising  itself  with  such  emphasis  before  the  captains  of 
the  British  industries,  that  it  is  surely  not  necessary  to 
lay  any  prolonged  stress  upon  it  here.  The  benefits  of  an 
alert  resistance  have  been  proved  over  and  over  again,  in 
minor,  as  well  as  in  major,  matters.  Indeed,  it  is  usually 
only  in  minor  matters  that  a  definite  and  patent  result  is 
available.  For  an  instance  of  this  I  must  turn  again  to 
the  leading  British  steamship  association  which  serves 
South  America. 

It  happened  some  time  ago  that  the  agent  of  this  asso- 
ciation at  one  of  the  western  European  ports  noticed 
that  the  agent  of  the  rival  German  line  was  making  a 
practice  of  endowing  the  poster-pictures  of  his  steamers 
with  one  funnel  beyond  the  number  that  they  actually 
possessed.  Unimportant  though  the  exaggeration  may 
appear  to  the  layman,  it  was  by  no  means  without  its 
method.  How  deeply  the  simple  but  profitable  Iberian 
steerage  passenger  is  impressed  by  such  pictures  will  be 
realized  when  it  is  explained  that  on  one  occasion  a  num- 


TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW  537 

ber  refused  to  sail  on  a  certain  vessel  that  did  not  boast 
as  many  funnels  as  shown  in  the  stock  illustration  printed 
on  the  ticket — although  the  despised  vessel  happened  to 
be  one  of  the  largest  in  the  service. 

The  British  agent,  aware  of  its  significance,  proceeded 
to  counter  his  rival's  method.  New  posters  showed  the 
vessels  of  his  line  with  one  funnel  more  than  those  de- 
picted on  the  German  sheets.  When  the  Teutonic  agent 
had  rubbed  his  eyes  at  the  sight  he  hastily  called  his 
posters  in,  and  replaced  them  by  others  upon  which  tow- 
ered two  funnels  more  than  on  the  last.  He  had,  in  fact, 
gone  one  better:  but  his  improvement  was  once  again 
excelled  by  his  alert  competitor.  The  affair  continued  un- 
til the  pictured  British  hulls  groaned  beneath  the  weight 
of,  I  believe,  seven  enormous  funnels ! 

On  this  the  German  agent,  in  despair,  appealed  to  his 
head  office  in  Prussia  to  intervene — in  order  to  make  an 
end  to  this  spectacular  rivalry  which  he  himself  had  in- 
troduced !  As  a  result  of  negotiations  between  the  com- 
panies a  truce  in  imaginative  posters  was  proclaimed,  and 
the  respective  pictures  began  again  to  sail  under  their 
proper  funnels.  But  this  object-lesson  has  led  us  some 
way  from  the  two  great  issues  under  discussion. 

Out  of  these  two  issues,  enterprise  and  combination, 
arises  a  third  which  in  its  own  way  is  every  whit  as  im- 
portant. It  is  one  which  involves  the  forsaking  of  gen- 
eralities and  a  survey  of  some  of  the  more  intimate  de- 
tails of  our  trade  with  the  South  Americans.  We  have 
been  taking  into  consideration  the  question  of  the  com- 
parative values  of  goods  and  industrial  services.  The 
most  cursory  study  of  these  must  lead  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  rewards  of  unadvertised  sterling  merit  are 
largely  confined  to  fiction.  It  may  savor  of  smugness  to 
assert  that  in  the  past  we  have  relied  too  largely  on  merit 
and  not  sufficiently  on  advertisement  in  the  widest  sense  of 
the  word.  Yet  I  believe  that  this  has  been  so  in  the  com- 
mercial world  of  buying  and  selling — in  some  branches  of 


538      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

which  the  goods  would  seem  to  have  sold  themselves  in 
spite  of  the  methods  adopted  to  sell  them ! 

At  the  present  juncture  the  commercial  traveler  repre- 
sents one  of  the  most  important  personages  in  the  South 
American  commercial  problem.  It  is  only  quite  recently 
that  we  have  begun  to  employ  men  sufficiently  well- 
equipped  by  education  and  training  for  a  field  that  is  the 
richest  in  the  world,  and  at  the  same  time  the  most  liber- 
ally garnished  with  pitfalls.  South  America  is  the  blue 
ribbon  of  the  selling  world.  The  commercial  traveler  ap- 
pointed there  should  stand  in  the  same  relation  toward 
his  brethren  of  the  home  trade  that  an  ambassador  does 
to  the  most  modest  vice-consul.  My  own  definition  of  the 
type  of  commercial  traveler  fitted  for  the  South  American 
trade  of  to-day  may  sound  didactic,  even  startling,  but 
here  it  is.  He  should,  I  think,  be  of  the  public  school 
type,  whose  subsequent  university  career  has  been  sacri- 
ficed to  a  study  of  French,  Spanish,  and  Portuguese. 
Trouble  should  be  taken  in  his  initiation  into  his  pro- 
fession. He  should  be  properly  coached  concerning  the 
men  and  matters  of  the  countries  that  are  to  be  his  field. 
Finally,  he  should  be  trained  to  chase  an  order  as  keenly 
as  his  father  followed  hounds  in  the  wake  of  the  gamest 
fox!  Is  this  recipe  for  a  modern  South  American  com- 
mercial traveler  made  up  on  Utopian  lines'?  I  do  not 
think  so.  It  is  merely  a  question  of  salary  and  profes- 
sional status,  both  of  which  would  arrange  themselves  in 
such  circumstances.  I  am  convinced,  from  encounters 
in  South  American  travels,  that  this  is  a  perfectly  feasible 
and  practicable  person  in  real  life,  but  on  this  canvas  it  is 
only  possible  to  sketch  him  on  the  broadest  lines. 

Of  late  years  the  most  important  English  companies 
when  competing  for  large  contracts  have  acknowledged 
the  merits  of  this  policy  up  to  the  point  of  sending  out 
men  of  real  eminence  in  their  professions.  But  this  has 
been  principally  on  account  of  the  necessity  for  an  author- 
itative opinion  where  important  technical  points  are  con- 


TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW  539 

cerned,  such  as  in  contracts  for  warships,  harbor-works, 
and  the  like. 

Even  in  such  affairs  as  these  expert  knowledge  and 
merit  are  not  invariably  successful  against  the  more  pirat- 
ical type  of  salesman.  The  following  history  of  a  war- 
ship deal  will  illustrate  this.  I  had  the  story  from  the 
successful  agent  himself  in  the  flush  of  his  triumph — but, 
needless  to  say,  not  before  the  matter  had  been  signed  and 
sealed  beyond  redemption.  No  pledge  of  secrecy  is  in- 
volved ;  nevertheless  I  will  not  describe  his  nationality — 
save  to  say  of  it  that  it  was  neither  British  nor  German 
— nor  the  republic  in  which  the  affair  occurred,  nor  is  it 
necessary  to  state  whether  the  vessels  concerned  were 
dreadnoughts  or  torpedo-boats ! 

The  story  smacks  rather  of  the  popular  fiction  than  of 
the  actualities  of  South  America.  But  its  transparent 
truth  has  been  borne  out  by  subsequent  events. 

A  number  of  warship-builders'  agents  had  assembled 
in  South  America,  to  compete  for  a  contract.  As  it  hap- 
pened, in  the  ministry  of  the  republic  concerned  was  a 
minister  whose  financial  morality  belonged  to  an  era 
of  the  Continent  that  is  no  longer  normal  in  the  pro- 
gressive republics.  One  of  the  competing  agents,  having 
succeeded  in  interesting  him  directly  from  the  monetary 
point  of  view,  obtained  the  promise  of  the  contract. 
When  the  agreement  came  up  for  ratification,  it  became 
clear  on  the  face  of  it  to  the  other  ministers  that  the 
business  was  a  tainted  one.  They  desired  to  quash  the 
entire  negotiation.  But  the  agent  stuck  to  his  guns.  If 
the  contract  were  not  ratified,  he  threatened,  he  would 
publish  the  incriminating  letters  which  the  erring  min- 
ister had  ingenuously  written  to  him!  The  agent  held 
firm  even  against  the  interference  of  a  most  efiicient  chief 
of  police,  whose  warnings  and  life  were  cut  short  by  an 
anarchist  bomb — a  catastrophe  that  helped  the  agent  to 
win  the  day.  In  the  end  the  authorities,  realizing  that  the 
reputation  of  the  cabinet  was  at  stake,  and  that  the  days 


540      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

had  gone  by  when  this  sort  of  scandal  could  be  endured 
with  impunity,  gave  in — and  England  lost  the  contract. 

It  is  not  often  that  one  is  favored  with  the  tranquil 
narration  of  such  facts  as  these  at  first  hand!  This 
inner  history  of  a  warship  contract  may,  or  may  not,  be 
known  to  the  British  firms  who  competed  at  the  time.  I 
do  not  introduce  it  here  as  a  model  for  the  policy  of  the 
British  agents!  Viewing  the  matter  quite  apart  from 
its  moral  aspects,  it  is  no  easier  to  bribe  a  minister  in 
the  advanced  South  American  States  than  it  would  be  in 
England.  But  it  may  serve  as  an  illustration  of  the 
thousand  and  one  situations  w^hich  British  agents  must 
be  prepared  to  face — situations  which  naturally  grow  in 
variety  as  the  less  advanced  countries  are  entered. 

The  average  Englishman  may  find  some  difficulty  in 
combating  this  particular  species  of  difficulty,  since  we 
may  take  it  that,  following  a  settled  and  deeply  ingrained 
policy,  he  is  not  in  general  an  opportunist.  This  is  an 
important  factor  in  the  political  and  commercial  situa- 
tion ;  for  this  lack  of  opportunism  has  its  advantages  as 
well  as  its  drawbacks.  A  South  American  knows  that  a 
saddle  bought  from  an  Englishman  will  be  of  leather,  and 
not  of  paper.  It  does  not  matter  whether  the  reason  be 
that  the  seller's  father  made  leather  saddles  before  him, 
and  that,  like  the  American  of  fable,  he  is  too  lazy  to 
stop  running  when  once  he  has  started !  The  saddle  will 
be  of  leather,  and  the  South  American  is  deeply  appre- 
ciative of  this  fact.  He  welcomes  this  want  of  oppor- 
tunism as  warmly  as  he  does  another  instance  of  it — the 
failure  to  alight  like  a  bird  of  prey  into  the  midst  of  a 
South  American  political  crisis,  and  to  make  capital  out 
of  local  embarrassment. 

This  brings  us  again  to  the  consideration  of  our  most 
formidable  rival  in  South  America.  In  our  commercial 
struggle  with  Germany  we  are  confronted  with  a  state  of 
affairs  which  carries  us  beyond  the  fundamental  problems 
of  the  quality  of  the  goods  and  the  capability  of  the  seller. 


TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW  541 

Granted  that — by  the  simple  means  of  taking  trouble — it 
is  in  our  power  not  only  to  rival  Germany  but  eventually 
to  outdo  her  in  both  these  respects,  we  are  by  no  means 
at  the  end  of  our  difficulties.  Our  commercial  efforts 
have  recently  been  made  to  labor  under  an  entirely  new 
set  of  specially  created  and  formidable  disadvantages. 
We  find  ourselves  opposed  by  a  Teutonic  flame  of  energy 
which  is  fanned  by  a  species  of  forced  draft.  It  is  of 
enormous  importance  to  scrutinize  this  system  which  has 
now  become  part  and  parcel  of  the  German  predatory 
trade.  If  we  fail  to  grasp  this  we  might  well  find  our- 
selves in  the  position  of  a  bowler  who,  having  placed  nine 
crack  fieldsmen  to  the  right  of  the  wicket,  bowls  to  leg! 
The  German  merchant  or  agent  now  forms  an  atom  in 
one  of  the  most  scientific  organizations  that  the  world 
has  ever  seen.  The  entire  Teutonic  national  machinery  is 
driving  to  assist  in  pushing  a  lighting  or  tramway  con- 
tract, or  the  sale  of  a  razor,  or  a  spoon!  Realizing  that 
commerce  is  the  guiding  star,  in  the  relations  between 
Europe  and  South  America,  Germany  has  thrown  into 
the  struggle  every  ounce  of  her  official  strength.  Does 
a  South  American  army  require  training  in  the  latest 
military  ideas!  The  Prussian  Government  is  delighted 
to  send  a  score  of  officers  at  a  moment's  notice.  The  rec- 
ommendations of  the  Prussian  soldiers,  once  installed, 
concerning  military  weapons  and  stores,  will  not  be  un- 
favorable to  the  German  manufacturers.  An  imposing 
German  warship  is  always  prepared  to  make  a  special 
parade  in  the  South  American  ports,  and  no  banquet  or 
any  other  social  function  is  too  costly  to  oil  a  creaking 
commercial  wheel !  A  cordial  imperial  telegram  is  occa- 
sionally at  the  service  of  a  private  deal — if  sufficiently 
important — and  imperial  cups  for  regattas  have  been 
found  pretty  successful  in  the  way  of  business.  Of  re- 
cent years  the  average  German  minister  plenipotentiary 
in  South  America  has  resolved  his  uniformed  personality 
into  that  of  an  arch-commercial  traveler.     He  has  become 


542      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

an  intriguing  concession  hunter,  who  has  succeeded  in 
dressing  up  rather  shady  commercial  procedure  in  a 
cocked  hat,  and  stars,  and  spurs — very  much  to  the  benefit 
of  the  financial  results,  and  to  the  outraging  of  the  ethics 
of  legitimate  diplomacy.  The  law  in  England  may  be  a 
'*hass";  diplomacy  in  Germany  is  certainly  a  .jackal! 

There  is  no  denying  the  commercial  value  of  telegrams, 
decorations,  audiences,  and  special  embassies,  when  em- 
anating from  a  sufficiently  exalted  source.  Organized 
flattery  may  be  wearisome  labor,  but  it  is  profitable 
policy.  It  is  one  in  which  the  modern  German  special- 
izes. I  chanced  to  meet  with  a  salient  instance  even  in 
Norway  when,  the  summer  before  the  first  year  of  the 
war,  the  fiords  were  heavily  infested  with  the  vessels  of 
the  German  fleet.  As  one  or  two  of  the  battle-ships  were 
about  to  depart  from  a  small  port,  it  was  noticeable  that 
the  sailors,  waiting  for  the  launches  which  were  to  convey 
them  to  the  ships,  had  been  provided  with  little  Nor- 
wegian flags.  These  they  waved  in  a  fashion  so  patently 
to  order  that  it  was  rather  ludicrous  to  watch.  It  was  a 
piece  of  drill  to  them!  But  it  was  an  object-lesson  to 
the  spectator. 

What  have  we  to  pit  against  an  organization  that  will 
back  a  contract,  a  convenient  revolution,  or  a  friendship 
of  state,  with  a  thoroughness  that  includes  all  things  from 
calculated  terrorism  to  the  waving  of  toy  flags?  Some 
thousands  of  able  British  business  men,  some  hundreds 
of  public  companies,  and  one  or  two  great  combinations. 
Individually,  the  force  of  any  one  of  these  is  formidable, 
when  opposed  to  a  rival  concern  of  its  own  weight  and 
industrial  gun-power.  But,  mustered  into  the  organized 
commercial  army  which  the  present  situation  demands, 
they  present  a  heterogeneous  front  compared  with  the 
ordered  and  closely  knit  phalanx  that  Germany  has  ad- 
vanced to  the  attack. 

If  ever  there  was  an  opportunity  for  the  removal  of 
these  disadvantages  it  is  now.     In  what  way  is  this  to  be 


TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW  543 

effected?  By  a  general  formation  of  trusts?  No  doubt 
necessity  will  drive  considerable  lengths  in  this  direction, 
but  even  this  procedure — distasteful  to  the  public — leaves 
much  unsolved.  Moreover,  the  alternative,  state  control, 
on  so  large  a  scale  as  this  would  involve  a  more  fateful 
leap  into  Socialism  than  the  nation  has  been  prepared  for 
even  by  the  events  of  the  past  two  years. 

In  any  case  it  seems  to  me  that  there  is  a  moderately 
simple  means  of  supplying  a  practical  impetus  to  a  suc- 
cessful stand  against  German  trade  aggression.  Surely 
this  might  be  effected  by  broadening  the  scope  of  our 
South  American  legations,  not  after  the  German  model, 
but  in  a  legitimate  fashion. 

We  can  now  afford  to  regard  our  diplomatists  in  South 
America  with  some  complacency.  That  particular  de- 
partment is  not  so  restful  in  these  days  as  it  was  some 
twenty  years  ago,  when  the  aspirants  to  attacheships 
were  haunted  by  a  tradition  that  a  lack  of  proper  influ- 
ence meant  an  exile  to  South  America,  and  that,  after 
years  of  a  Rip  Van  Winkle-like  existence,  the  sole  reply 
which  the  F.O.  would  deign  to  the  protest  of  an  official 
thus  stranded  was  an  enquiry  concerning  the  whereabouts 
of  the  place  with  the  strange  name  from  which  the  young 
diplomat  dated  his  letter,  and,  further,  how  it  came  about 
that  he  should  find  himself  there ! 

Fortunately  for  ourselves,  we  have  now  a  number  of 
ministers  of  the  first  order  in  South  America — the  same 
may  be  said  of  the  South  American  ministers  in  Europe 
— and  nothing  could  be  more  gratifying  than  the  stand- 
ard set  by  our  senior  representative  in  Argentina.  It 
would  be  lamentable  were  the  functions  and  dignity  of 
these  ministers  in  any  way  interfered  with.  But  why  not 
graft  on  to  this  tree  of  legitimate  state  a  branch  which 
should  apply  itself  to  commercial  purposes  only?  It  may 
be  objected  that  such  officials  as  commercial  attaches  are 
already  in  existence.  I  would  carry  the  duties  of  these 
suggested  adjutants  of  trade  much  further.    The  new 


544      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

branch  should  be  made  the  rallying-point  of  an  organized 
force  to  stem  an  organized  tide. 

Needless  to  say,  its  officials  would  have  to  submit  to  a 
very  special  training.  The  curriculum  of  a  public-school, 
a  university,  with  vacations  spent  abroad,  and  a  year  or 
two  at  "Scoones,"  is  admirable  enough  in  itself.  But  it 
does  not  fit  a  young  attache  to  cope  with  professional  in- 
triguers and  with  the  seamy  side  of  commercial  life.  Be- 
fore he  takes  up  the  lively  responsibilities  of  his  post  this 
new  man's  studies  must  have  drawn  him  over  rougher 
places  than  the  shaven  lawns  of  international  law,  politi- 
cal economy,  and  history. 

He  must  have  familiarized  himself  with  the  conditions 
under  which  the  various  businesses  of  his  fellow  coun- 
trymen in  South  America  are  carried  on.  It  is  of 
supreme  importance  that  he  should  delve  into  the  dark 
places  where  the  typical  dodges  and  evasions  of  our  chief 
competitor  are  hatched.  In  sympathy  he  must  be  heart 
and  soul  with  the  business  people  of  his  nation.  In  fact, 
he  must  be  a  diplomat  in  his  shirt-sleeves,  and  should  rep- 
resent to  the  minister  or  charge  d'affaires  that  which  the 
engineer  does  to  the  commander  of  a  battleship.  Finally, 
he  should  be  reasonably  endowed  with  the  qualities  of 
mental  elasticity  and  detective  power. 

How  is  all  this  to  be  effected?  There  are  a  dozen  ways 
that  suggest  themselves  to  the  person  of  average  intelli- 
gence, given  a  loosening  of  some  of  the  more  rigid  of  the 
official  tenets — a  process  that  should  not  be  difficult  in 
these  frankly  experimental  days.  In  fact,  this  new  offi- 
cial, if  he  is  to  succeed,  must  be  under  the  protection  of 
a  specially  founded  ministry — a  ministry  of  anti-red 
tape! 

Doubtless  there  are  a  dozen  more  or  less  valid  objec- 
tions which  might  be  brought  against  this  suggested  inno- 
vation. But  those  which  confine  themselves  to  the  diffi- 
culties of  finding  the  right  men  and  of  training  them, 
should  not,  I  think,  be  taken  seriously,  since  a  moderate 


TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW  545 

display  of  organizing  power  will  overcome  an  obstacle 
which  is  important  only  in  the  minds  of  those  averse  to 
a  new  order  of  affairs. 

Quite  possibly  in  the  first  instance  the  British  merchant 
himself  would  look  askance  at  the  new  departure,  and 
would  utter  a  few  sturdy  and  outspoken  objections  against 
an  attempt  on  the  part  of  outsiders  to  teach  him  his 
business.  But,  if  the  service  were  in  any  way  efficient,  it 
would  take  the  new  officials  a  comparatively  short  time 
to  prove  themselves  invaluable  allies  instead  of  mere 
chastening  agents.  In  which  case  the  average  merchant 
would  soon  have  cause  to  admit  the  incalculable  benefits 
to  be  derived  from  the  presence  of  an  official  whose  whole 
mind  and  time  were  given  to  tasks  which  the  merchant 
possessed  neither  time,  inclination — nor  perhaps  even 
ability — to  achieve  for  himself — in  fact,  an  ally  whose 
chief  aim  would  be  to  supply  an  intelligence  service  on 
tap,  as  it  were. 

Surely  the  importance  of  a  successful  work  of  this 
kind  cannot  be  over-estimated.  It  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  in  spite — or  because — of  its  dubious  morality,  this 
German  commercial  policy  has  paid!  The  ocular  evi- 
dence of  German  prosperity  in  South  America  is  so  sa- 
lient that  the  traveler  in  that  continent  needs  none  of 
the  numerous  attendant  statistics  to  help  to  prove  it !  In 
one  or  two  spots  the  advertising  genius  of  the  Germans 
has  even  gone  the  length  of  implanting  a  German  settle- 
ment— sufficiently  ostentatious  to  make  a  blaring  parade 
of  success — on  a  spot  previously  inhabited  by  the  British, 
which  had  been  abandoned  with  a  dignified  but  incom- 
prehensible calm.  Yet  more  striking  evidence  is  pro- 
vided by  the  pretentious  buildings  of  the  German  clubs 
and  institutions,  edifices  which  suggest  the  work  of  an 
iron  fist  in  a  monumental  mood  toying  with  bricks  and 
mortar!  But  let  it  never  be  forgotten  that  the  founda- 
tion of  these  peace-time  equivalents  of  the  Hindenburg 
statue  in  Berlin  have  been  set  in  a  prosperity  caused,  not 


546      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

by  superior  manufactures,  but  by  a  more  obsequious  at- 
tention to  the  customer's  wants,  and  a  more  cunning  way, 
officially  assisted,  of  selling  them ! 

And  now  to  deal  with  the  situation  of  to-day.  At  the 
present  juncture  it  is  very  doubtful  how  fully  the  depth 
of  South  American  unpopularity  into  which  the  circum- 
stances of  the  war  have  plunged  the  Germans  is  under- 
stood in  Great  Britain.  Here  are  a  few  extracts  from  a 
prominent  Brazilian  merchant's  letter  written  to  a  friend 
of  mine  some  six  months  after  the  outbreak  of  hostilities, 
which  will — very  mildly — illustrate  this,  as  well  as  some 
other  important  points : 

"The  useless  German  propaganda  attributing  to  Eng- 
land the  responsibilities  of  the  war  are  of  no  avail.  ...  I 
bear  no  hatred  toward  the  Germans  in  general  and  I  am 
sorry  for  them,  but  I  detest  the  Kaiser  and  his  militar- 
ism, which  it  is  necessary  to  destroy  once  and  for  all. 
The  blood  of  so  many  brave  men  killed  calls  for  justice, 
and  justice  will  be  done,  for  the  God  of  Humanity  is  not 
He  whom  the  Kaiser  calls  his  ally. 

"I  follow  daily  in  several  newspapers  all  that  is  writ- 
ten as  to  the  war,  and  I  think  that  we  are  here  almost 
as  well  informed  as  you  in  Europe  are,  because  our  tele- 
graphic news  service  is  very  good.  In  our  press  there 
is  not  one  single  journal  that  is  not  on  the  side  of  the 
Allies,  except  one  little  Italian  rag  that  is  published  here 
and  sold  to  Germans.  Of  the  Brazilian  and  Portuguese 
inhabitants  of  Rio  also  95  per  cent,  is  in  favor  of  the 
Allies,  and  if  this  current  of  sympathy  were  ably  devel- 
oped it  would  be  easy  for  English  and  French  merchants 
to  push  the  Germans  right  out,  but  I  know  both  one  and 
the  other  well  enough  to  be  aware  how  difficult  it  would 
be  to  induce  them  to  alter  their  manner  of  working.  .  .  . 
Now  that  England,  France,  and  Belgium  have  put  their 
hands  to  the  defense  of  their  countries,  let  them  also  do 
it  in  defense  of  their  commercial  interests.  .  .  .  Business 
propaganda  should  start  from  the  English  and  French 


TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW  547 

chambers  of  commerce,  backed  by  official  support,  but 
without  the  interference  of  self-seeking  politicians.  Send 
business  men  who  can  get  to  business  with  our  merchants ! 
Only  thus  will  something  be  attained.  All  the  rest  is 
throwing  away  time  and  money. ' ' 

These  are  the  phrases  of  an  intelligent  and  practical 
merchant.  The  sound  commonsense  expressed  in  his 
opinion  is  undeniable.  As  to  its  reference  to  South 
American  sentiment,  it  must  be  remembered  that  these 
lines  were  written  when  the  German  propaganda  was  at 
its  height,  and  very  long  before  the  declaration  of  war 
by  Germany  on  Portugal  had  stirred  the  consistent  South 
American  resentment  to  its  present  pitch.  I  have  tried 
to  show  that  the  South  American  has  always  looked  with 
some  favor  on  the  Englishman:  but  if  the  regard  was 
warm  before  the  war,  it  is  burning  now! 

Surely  all  the  energies  which  can  be  spared  from  the 
vital  needs  of  the  war  should  be  turned  to  that  ''devel- 
opment of  sympathy"  to  which  the  Eio  merchant  refers. 
It  would  be  a  poor  ambition,  moreover,  which  would  con- 
tent itself  with  the  mere  seizing  of  a  strategic  advantage 
offered  by  our  enemies'  preoccupation.  If  we  desire  to 
continue  in  our  rightful  place  in  the  industrial  world,  how 
can  we  fail  to  prepare  ourselves — as  is  well  within  our 
power — to  cope  with  the  full  blood  of  German  industry 
should  it  resume  its  attempts  to  swamp  our  own !  ' '  Quien 
se  hace  miel  le  comen  las  moscas,"  says  the  Spaniard. 
"He  who  lets  himself  be  honey  is  eaten  by  the  flies !" 

Should  Germany  continue  a  nation,  without  a  doubt 
such  an  attempt  w411  be  made  sooner  or  later,  and  it  re- 
quires no  gift  of  foresight  to  judge  that  it  will  be  con- 
ducted on  an  important  scale.  No  doubt,  following  a  pol- 
icy which  has  proved  successful  in  the  past,  she  will 
attempt  a  lavish  short  cut  to  reinstatement,  and  will  en- 
deavor to  dull  the  memories  of  the  war  by  sending  out  a 
stream  of  dollars — from  however  diminished  a  hoard — in 
as  close  an  order  as  she  sent  her  soldiers  to  the  attack. 


548      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

A  fluffy  hailstorm  of  notes  will  play  about  the  centers  of 
journalism,  officialdom,  and  general  commerce:  it  needs 
not  a  very  astute  seer  to  prophesy  so  much.  Then  would 
arise  a  great  opportunity  for  the  proposed  new  officials ; 
for  an  attitude  of  passive  resistance  is  as  profitless  in  a 
war  of  commerce  as  in  a  battle  of  shells. 

To  forsake  the  topic  of  the  German  trade  hostilities 
for  that  of  the  North  American  competition  is  to  experi- 
ence the  sensations  of  one  emerging  from  an  entangled 
forest  path  on  to  an  open  high-road.  Yet  this  affords  no 
reason  for  regarding  it  lightly.  The  North  American 
competition  with  which  we  have  to  contend  is  straight- 
forward, of  a  fairly  simple  order,  but  very  powerful.  It 
relies  for  its  success  largely  on  a  sheer  weight  of  dollars. 
It  enjoys  forming  a  trust  and  buying  up  the  control  of 
an  entire  trade  as  it  has  done  in  the  case  of  the  river 
Plate  chilled  meat  industry  and  the  banana  trade  of  the 
extreme  north  of  the  Continent.  In  its  industrial  enter- 
prise, moreover,  it  has  set  itself  a  very  high  standard — if 
not  quite  so  lofty  an  ideal  of  political  morality — at  Pan- 
ama. 

The  North  American  has  already  given  ample  proof 
that  he  means  business — very  big  business — in  the  South. 
But,  seeing  that  no  question  of  imperial  aggression  is 
concerned,  there  would  seem  no  reason  why  his  ventures 
and  those  of  the  British  should  not  thrive  side  by  side. 
Generally  speaking,  the  North  American's  experience  of 
the  Southern  continent  has  up  to  the  present  been  limited. 
The  newcomer  from  the  United  States  finds  it  difficult 
to  realize  how  many  races  teem,  and  how  many  rivers 
run,  between  New  York  and  Buenos  Aires.  Moreover, 
seeing  that  South  America  is  so  essentially  a  Latin  con- 
tinent, refusing  to  open  the  doors  of  her  intimacies  to  any 
chance  knocker  ignorant  of  her  tongues,  manners,  and  cus- 
toms, this  condition  of  aifairs  cannot  be  altered  very  rap- 
idly. But  the  importance  of  the  work  which  the  United 
States  is  already  achieving  in  this  direction  may  be  gaged 


STREET   SCENE   IN    RIO   DE   JANEIRO 


AVENUE    RIO    RRANCO,    RIO    DE    JANEIRO 


TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW  549 

from  the  ** Bulletin  of  the  Pan-American  Union,"  an  ad- 
mirably edited  organ,  with  which  we  in  England,  to  our 
loss,  have  nothing  to  compare. 

In  many  respects  the  North  American  has  only  just 
begun  to  feel  his  feet  in  South  America.  Being  a  rapid 
worker,  he  has  already  begun  to  compete  with  us  in  our 
railway  enterprises,  and  in  general  commerce  he  is  nat- 
urally making  the  most  of  the  opportunities  afforded  him 
by  the  European  conflagration.  Nevertheless,  I  do  not 
think  that  the  United  States  will  be  in  a  position  to  make 
her  full  force  felt  until  she  has  largely  increased  the 
number  of  her  workers  who  are  genuinely  conversant 
with  South  American  affairs. 

There  is  a  final  point  to  be  considered,  bearing  rather 
on  our  relations  with  the  South  Americans  themselves 
than  with  our  industrial  and  commercial  competitors. 
In  what  manner  would  the  proposed  policy  of  imperial 
preference  affect  the  inhabitants  of  the  Southern  con- 
tinent? It  would,  I  think,  leave  them  calm.  The  con- 
tinuous progress  of  industry  tends  to  keep  the  various 
fields  and  markets  in  a  state  of  flux.  To-day  the  competi- 
tion between  South  America  and  our  colonies  is  not  in 
food  products  (neither  can  produce  sufficient  to  meet  the 
world's  demand)  nor  in  the  command  of  the  markets. 
Such  rivalry  as  exists  concerns  the  attraction  of  immi- 
grants and  capital. 

How  fully  alive  are  our  colonies  to  the  importance  of 
removing  the  bushels  from  their  lights  may  be  judged 
from  those  well-planned  agencies  and  shop-window  ex- 
hibitions which  they  have  established  in  London  and 
elsewhere.  If  there  be  a  canker  in  the  British  Empire, 
it  is,  I  think,  a  parochial  spirit,  which  occasionally  flour- 
ishes at  its  heart  (where  the  best  and  least  mingle)  and 
which  finds  nothing  on  which  to  thrive  in  the  colonies 
and  younger  lands.  It  seemed  a  stroke  of  genius  that 
at  the  Argentine  Centenary  Exhibition  held  a  few  years 
ago  gallant  little  New  Zealand  should  have  had  a  section 


550      BRITISH  EXPLOITS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

all  to  herself.  More  of  this  kind  of  thing — from  infor- 
mation bureaus  to  exhibition  shops — would  greatly  facili- 
tate our  relations  with  the  great  Southern  continent. 
Who  would  not  strongly  advocate  a  more  thorough  edu- 
cation of  the  British  in  South  American  affairs :  a  more 
thorough  education  of  the  South  Americans  in  British 
affairs ! 

So  much  is,  I  suppose,  a  platitude.  But  the  ignorance 
which  from  time  to  time  is  displayed  in  London  on  the 
part  of  even  those  financially  interested  in  the  Latin  Con- 
tinent is  sufficiently  amazing  to  justify  many  platitudes ! 
I  myself  know  of  one  minor  loan  (of  seven  figures  never- 
theless) that  was  floated  largely  on  the  misapprehension 
that  it  was  for  a  fashionable  South  American  seaside  re- 
sort, when  its  object  was  really  a  commercial  port  on  the 
banks  of  one  of  the  great  rivers.  The  names  of  the  two 
somewhat  resembled  each  other!  No  harm  was  done; 
but  that  was  not  on  account  of  the  geographical  knowl- 
edge of  the  financiers ! 

So  much  for  a  few  considerations  affecting  our  com- 
mercial relations  with  our  competitors  and  with  the  South 
Americans.  Apart  from  every  question  of  business, 
there  is  surely  every  ethical  reason  why  the  British  should 
work  hand  in  hand  with  the  Iberian  in  the  development 
of  a  continent  which  has  every  right  to  call  itself  the  most 
industrially  remarkable  in  the  world. 

The  duty  of  assisting  in  this  task  has  appealed  to  the 
British  for  more  than  a  century,  and  their  sympathies 
with  the  South  Americans  have  remained  unbroken 
throughout.  It  is  seldom  enough  that  a  note  is  struck 
such  as  that  of  C.  B.  Mansfield,  a  splendid  but  rather 
visionary  personality — ^beloved  and  admired  of  Charles 
Kingsley — who,  seething  with  ecstasy  at  the  splendors  a 
trip  in  South  America  revealed  to  him,  wrote,  "What  a 
monstrous  folly,  to  guarantee  by  treaties  the  possession 
of  these  lands  to  these  Iberians!" 

This  cry  rises  from  the  pages  of  a  sufficiently  remark- 


TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW  551 

able  book  wbicb  Mansfield  wrote  in  1852.  It  is  instruct- 
ive in  its  way,  since  it  proves  that  a  person  of  even  Mans- 
field's genius  mistook  for  a  normal  state  the  convulsions 
that  accompanied  the  birth  of  the  new  nations.  He  fore- 
saw neither  the  great  prosperity  which  was  to  come  into 
being  nor  the  intellectual  field  which  has  already  given 
strong  evidence  of  its  power,  and  which  will  undoubtedly 
provide  some  of  the  most  remarkable  achievements  of 
the  future. 

But  his  commercial  countrymen  who  were  settled  in 
the  Continent  at  the  time  of  Mansfield's  visit,  guided  per- 
haps by  instinct  rather  than  observation,  made  no  such 
mistake.  No  nation,  surely,  has  proved  itself  so  well  fit- 
ted as  Great  Britain  to  serve  as  a  practical  guide  for 
that  South  American  brilliancy  which  for  the  first  half- 
century  of  the  independence  of  the  Continent  shone  only 
in  fitful  gleams.  Now  that  the  time  for  guidance  is  pass- 
ing, may  we  not  more  than  maintain  our  position  by  con- 
tinuing our  assistance — as  an  ally? 


APPENDIX 


APPENDIX 

BIBLIOGRAPHY  OF  MODERN  WORKS 
FROM  1870 

1870     Resources  of  the  Argentine  Republic.     By  Major  Rickard. 

1870  Letter  of  Colombus,  with  other  Original  Documents  Re- 
lating to  his  Four  Voyages  to  the  New  World.  Translated 
by  R.  H.  Major.     (Hakluyt  Society.) 

1870     The  Andes  and  the  Amazon.     By  James  Orton. 

1870  Letters  from  the  Battle  Fields  of  Paraguay.  By  Sir 
Richard  Burton. 

1870  Pioneering  in  the  Pampas.  2nd  edition.  By  R.  A.  Sey- 
mour. 

1870    Seven  Eventful  Years  in  Paraguay.     By  G.  F.  Masterman. 

1870  Ten  Months  in  Brazil,  with  Notes  on  the  Paraguayan  War. 
By  J.  Codman. 

1870  Flint  Chips:  A  Guide  to  Pre-historic  Archeology,  as  Il- 
lustrated by  the  Collection  in  the  Blackmore  Museum, 
Salisbury.     By  Edward  T.  Stevens. 

1871  Emigration  to  the  River  Plate,  Success  of  British  Subjects 
in  Buenos  Aires,  List  of  Landowners,  Description  of  the 
City  and  Pl-ovince  of  Buenos  Aires.     By  S.  Webster. 

1871     Notes  on  the  Natural  History  of  the  Straits  of  Magellan 

and  West  Coast  of  Patagonia.     By  R.  D.  Cunningham. 
1871     Three  Years'   Slavery  among  the  Patagonians.     By  A. 

Guinnard. 
1871     The  Coolie,  his  Rights,  Wrongs:     Notes  of  a  Journey  to 

British  Guiana.     By  Edward  Jenkin. 
1871     At  Home  with  the  Patagonian.     By  Commander  G.  Cha- 

warth  Masters,  R.N. 

1871  Travels  in  Uruguay.     By  J.  H.  Murray. 

1872  Rough  Notes  on  a  Journey  through  the  Wilderness,  from 
Trinidad  to  Para,  Brazil,  by  Way  of  the  Great  Cataracts 
of  the  Orinoco  and  Rio  Grande.     By  H.  A.  Wickham. 

555 


556  APPENDIX 

1872  Round  the  World  in  1870 :  An  Account  of  a  Brief  Tour 
Made  through  India,  China,  Japan,  California,  and  South 
America.     By  A.  D.  Carlisle. 

1872  Reports  on  the  Discovery  of  Peru.  Translated  and  edited, 
with  notes  and  an  introduction.  By  Clements  R.  Mark- 
ham. 

1872  Reports  on  the  Discovery  of  Peru  by  Pizarro  and  Others. 
Translated  and  edited  by  Clements  Markham.  (Hakluyt 
Society. ) 

1873  Two  Years  in  Peru:  with  Exploration  of  Its  Antiquities. 
By  T.  J.  Hutchinson. 

1873     British  Guiana,  the  Essequibo  and  Potaro  Rivers,  with  an 

Account  of  a  Visit  to  the  Recently  Discovered  Kaieteur 

Falls.     By  Lieut.-Colonel  "Webber. 
1873    At  Home  with  the  Patagonians.     By  G.  C.  Musters. 
1873     Brazilian  Colonization :  from  an  European  Point  of  View. 

By  Jacare  Assu. 
1873     The  Amazons:     Diary  of  a  Twelvemonths'  Journey  on  a 

Mission  of  Enquiry  up  the  River  Amazon.     By  R.   S. 

Clough. 
1873     Reports  Respecting  the  Condition  of  British  Emigrants 

in  Brazil. 
1873    Narratives  of  the  Rites  and  Laws  of  the  Yncas.     Translated 

and   edited,   with   notes   and   an   introduction.     By   Sir 

Clements  Markham.     (Hakluyt  Society.) 
1873     Life   and  Missionary   Travels  of  the   Rev.   J.   F.   Ogle. 

Edited  by  Wylie. 

1873  A  Journey  across  South  America.     By  Paul  Marcoy. 

1874  The  Western  World :  Picturesque  Sketches  of  Nature  and 
Natural  History  in  North  and  South  America.  By  W.  H. 
G.  Kingston. 

1874  Memoir  of  Lady  Ana  de  Osorio,  Countess  of  Chinchon  and 
Vice-Queen  of  Peru.     By  Sir  Clements  R.  Markham. 

1875  Explorations  Made  in  the  Valley  of  the  River  Madeira, 
from  1749  to  1868.  Published  for  the  National  Bolivian 
Navigation  Company. 

1875     Geological  Survey  of  British  Guiana.     By  C.  B.  Brown 

and  J.  G.  Sawkins. 
1875     The  Amazon  and  Madeira  Rivers.     By  Franz  Keller. 
1875     History  of  British  Guiana.     By  Geo.  W.  Bennett. 


APPENDIX  557 

1876     The  Argentine  Republic.     By  Richard  Napp. 

1876  Handbook  to  the  River  Plate.  By  M.  G.  and  E.  T.  Mul- 
hall. 

1876  Sporting  Adventures  in  the  Pacific  whilst  in  Command 
of  the  Reindeer.     By  W.  R.  Kennedy. 

1876  Recollections  of  Four  Years  in  Venezuela.  By  C.  D. 
Dance. 

1876    Dutch  Guiana.     By  W.  G.  Palgrave. 

1876  Canoe  and  Camp  Life  in  British  Guiana.  By  C.  Barring- 
ton  Brown. 

1876  Over  the  Sea  and  Far  Away.     By  T.  W.  Hinchliff. 

1877  The  Two  Americas.     By  IMajor  Sir  R.  Lambart  Price. 
1877     Peru  and  its  Creditors.     By  W.  Clarke. 

1877  Brazil  and  the  River  Plate,  1870-76.     By  W.  Hadfield. 

1878  Fifteen  Thousand  Miles  on  the  Amazon  and  its  Tributar- 
ies.    By  C.  B.  Brown  and  W..  Lidstone. 

1878     The  Land  of  Bolivar.    By  J.  M.  Spence. 
1878     The  English  in  South  America.     By  M.  G.  Mulhall. 
1878     Pioneering  in  South  Brazil.     By  T.  P.  Brigg-Wither. 
1878    Visit  to  South  America,  with  Notes  and  Observations,  etc. 

By  Edwin  Clark. 
1878     The  Land  of  Bolivar;  or,  War,  Peace,  and  Adventure  in 

the  Republic  of  Venezuela.     By  J.  M.  Spence. 

1878  On  the  Supply  of  Nitrate  of  Soda  and  Guano  from  Peru. 

1879  Wanderings  in  Patagonia ;  or.  Life  among  the  Ostrich 
Hunters.     By  Julius  Beerbolm, 

1879     Notes   by   a   Naturalist   on   the   Challenger.     By   H.   N. 

Moseley. 
1879     Roraima,  and  British  Guiana,  with  a  Glance  at  Bermuda, 

the  West  Indies,  and  the  Spanish  Main.     By  J.  W.  Bod- 

dam-Whitham. 
1879     Waterton's  Wanderings  in  South  America.     Edited  by 

the  Rev.  J.  G.  Wood. 
1879     Brazil,  the  Amazons,  and  the  Coast.     By  H.  H.  Smith. 
1879    Report  of  Robert  Cross's  mission  to  South  America  in 

1877-8  to  Collect  Plants  of  the  Quinine  Bark  Tree,  etc. 
1879     Up  the  Amazon  and  Madeira  Rivers.     By  Edward  D. 

Mathews. 
1879     Brazil    and    the    Brazilians    (9th    edition).     By    J.    C. 

Fletcher  and  D.  P.  Kidder. 


558  APPENDIX 

1880  Voyages  of  the  Elizabethan  Seamen  to  America.  By  E. 
J.  Payne. 

1880  Eight  Months  on  the  Gran  Chaco  of  the  Argentine  Re- 
public.    By  Giovanni  Pelleschi. 

1880  The  Natural  and  Moral  History  of  the  Indies.  By  Father 
Joseph  de  Acosta.  Edited  by  Sir  Clements  Markham. 
(Hakluyt  Society.) 

1880  Legends  and  Myths  of  the  Aboriginal  Indians  of  British 
Guiana.     By  W.  H.  Brett. 

1880     South   America.     By  A.    Gallenga. 

1880  Six  Weeks  with  the  Chilean  Army,  being  a  Short  Ac- 
count of  a  March  from  Pisco  to  Lurin,  and  the  Attack 
on  Lima.  By  Commander  William  Acland,  R.N.  (Pri- 
vately printed  at  the  Melanesian  Mission,  Norfolk  Island.) 

1880    Across  Patagonia.     By  Lady  Florence  Dixie. 

1880  Peruvian  Bark:  a  Popular  Account  of  the  Introduction 
of  Chinchona  Cultivation  into  British  India.  By  Sir 
Clements  Markham. 

1881  The  Prospects  of  Peru,  the  End  of  the  Guano  Age  and  a 
Description  Thereof,  Etc.     By  A.  J.  Dufifield. 

1881     Between  the  Amazon  and  Andes;  or,  Ten  Years  of  a 

Lady's  Travels  in  the  Pampas,  Gran  Chaco,  Paraguay, 

and  Matto  Grosso.     By  M.  G.  Mulhall. 
1881     Chapters  from  a  Guianese  Log-Book.     By  the  Rev.  C.  D. 

Dance. 
1881     Sketches  of  Chili  and  the  Chileans  during  the  War,  1879- 

1880.     By  R.  W.  Boyd. 

1881  Cameos  from  the  Silver  Land;  or,  The  Experiences  of  a 
Young  Naturalist  in  the  Argentine  Republic.  By  E.  W. 
White. 

1882  A  Year  in  the  Andes.     By  R.  Carnegie-Williams. 

1883  Among  the  Indians  of  Guiana.     By  Everard  F.  im  Thum. 
1883     The  Geology  of  the  Goldfields  of  British  Guiana.     By  J. 

B.  Harrison. 

1883     Travels  in  Uruguay.     By  J.  H.  Murray. 

1883  The  Colony  of  British  Guiana  and  its  Laboring  Popula- 
tion.    By  the  Rev.  H.  V.  P.  Bronkhurst. 

1883  Researches  into  the  Lost  Histories  of  America;  or.  The 
Zodiac  Shown  to  be  an  old  terrestrial  Map  in  which  the 
Atlantic  Isle  is  delineated,  etc.     By  W.  S.  Blacket. 


APPENDIX  559 

1883     The  Republic  of  Uruguay.     Stanford. 

1883  The  War  between  Peru  and  Chile  1879-82.  By  Sir 
Clements  Markham. 

188- ?  A  Year  in  the  Andes;  or,  A  Lady's  Adventures  in 
Bogota,     By  Rosa  Carnegie-Williams. 

1884  Spanish  and  Portuguese  South  America.  By  R.  G.  Wat- 
son. 

1884    The  Peruvians  at  Home.     By  George  R.  Fitz-Roy  Cole. 
1884    The  Temple  of  the  Andes.     By  Richard  Inwards. 

1884  Across  the  Pampas  and  the  Andes.     By  Robert  Crawford. 

1885  Central  America,  the  West  Indies,  and  South  America. 
(Stanford's  Compendium  of  Geography  and  Travel), 
edited  and  extended  by  H.  W.  Bates. 

1885    Brazil  and  Java.    Report  on  Coffee  Culture.    By  C.  F. 

Learne. 
1885     Ascent  of  Mount  Roraima.     By  Sir  Everard  im  Thurn. 
1885     Sketches  of  African  and  Indian  Life  in  British  Guiana. 

By  Ignatius  Scoles. 

1885  Description  of  the  Collection  of  Gold  Ornaments  from  the 
"Huacas"  or  Groves  of  Some  Aboriginal  Races  of  the 
Northwestern  Provinces  of  South  America,  Belonging 
to  Lady  Brassey.     By  Bryce-Wright. 

Undated.     The  Cruise  of  the  Falcon.    By  E.  F.  Knight. 

1886  A  Year  in  Brazil,  with  Notes  on  the  Abolition  of  Slavery, 
Etc.     By  H.  C.  Dent. 

1886  Venezuela:  A  Visit  to  the  Gold  Mines  of  Guiana,  and 
Voyage  up  the  River  Orinoco  during  1886,  Etc.  By 
William  Barry. 

1886     Travels  in  Guiana  and  Venezuela.    By  H.  Ten  Kate. 

1886  Travels  in  the  Wilds  of  Ecuador  and  the  Explorations  of 
the  Putumayo  River.     By  Alfred  Simson. 

1886  Exploring  and  Traveling  Three  Thousand  Miles  through 
Brazil.     By  J.  W.  Wells. 

1886-89     History  of  America.     By  J.  Winsor. 

1887  Notes  of  a  Naturalist  in  South  America.     By  John  Ball. 
1887     The  Apostle  of  the  Indians.     By  W.  H.  Brett. 

1887  Zephyrus:  A  Holiday  in  Brazil  and  on  the  River  Plate. 
By  E.  R.  Pearce  Edgecumbe,  LL.D. 

Undated.  Missionary  Pioneering  in  Bolivia,  with  some  Ac- 
count of  Work  in  Argentina.     By  W.  M,  Payne. 


560  APPENDIX 

1887  The  Great  Silver  River,  Notes  of  a  Residence  in  Buenos 
Aires  in  1880-81.     By  Sir  Horace  Rumbold. 

1887  Sketch  of  the  City  of  Iquique,  Chile,  South  America: 
Its  Past  and  Present  during  the  last  Fifty  Years.  By 
Captain  W.  M.  F.  Castle. 

1888  The  Amazon  Provinces  of  Peru  as  a  Field  for  European 
Emigration,  and  the  Gold  and  Silver  Mines.  By  H. 
Guillaume. 

1888  Three  Cruises  of  the  United  States  Coast  and  Geodetic 
Survey  Steamer  Blake  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  Caribbean 
Sea,  Etc.,  1877-1880.     By  Alexander  Agassiz. 

1888  The  Venezuela  Central  Railway  and  its  Sources  of  Traf- 
fic.   By  G.  E.  Church. 

1888  Prospects  of  Gold  Mining  in  Venezuela.  By  W.  G. 
Wears. 

1888  Among  the  Hindus  and  Creoles  of  British  Guiana.  By 
the  Rev.  H.  V.  P.  Bronkhurst. 

1888     The  Apostle  of  the  Indians  of  Guiana.    By  W.  H.  Brett. 

1888     The  Capitals  of  Spanish  America.    By  W.  E.  Curtis. 

1888  Annals  of  Guiana:  Chronological  History  of  its  Discov- 
ery and  Settlement.  By  James  Rodway  and  Thomas 
Watt. 

1888-89    Argentine  Ornithology.     By  P.  L.  Sclater  and  W.  H. 

Hudson. 
1899     Recollections  of  Travel  Abroad.     By  A.  J.  Duffield. 
1899     Textile  Fabrics  of  Ancient  Peru.    By  W.  H.  Holmes. 

1889  From  Peru  to  the  Plate  Overland.     By  Patrick  A.  Evans. 

1890  A  Visit  to  Chile  and  the  Nitrate  Fields  of  Tarapaca.  By 
William  H.  Russell. 

1890  The  Great  Silver  River;  Notes  of  a  Residence  in  Buenos 
Aires  in  1880-81.  Second  edition,  with  an  additional 
chapter  on  the  present  commercial  position  of  the  coun- 
try.   By  Sir  Horace  Rumbold. 

1891  The  Conquest  of  the  River  Plate,  1535-1555,  Translated 
by  Don  Luis  L.  Dominguez.     (Hakluyt  Society.) 

1891  Twelve  Months  in  Peru.    By  E.  B.  Clark. 

1891  History  of  the  Bucaneers  of  America.    By  B.  J.  Bumey. 

1891  Story  of  the  Filibusters,  Etc.     By  James  J.  Roche. 

1891  Adventures  amidst  the  Equatorial  Forests  and  Rivers  of 


APPENDIX  561 

South  America,  West  Indies,  and  Florida.     By  Villiers 
Stuart. 
1891     Travels  and  Adventures  of  an  Orchid  Hunter.     By  Albert 
Millican. 

1891  A  Winter's  Cruise  in  Summer  Seas.     By  C.  C.  Atchison. 

1892  Sporting  Sketches  in  South  America.  By  Sir  W.  R. 
Kennedy. 

1892     Paraguay.     By  Dr.  E.  De  Bourgade  La  Dardye. 
1892     The  South  American  Eepublics.     By  Theodore  Child. 
1892     The  Naturalist  in  La  Plata.     By  W.  H.  Hudson. 
1892     The   Discovery   of   America,   with   Account   of   Ancient 

America  and  the  Spanish  Conquest.     By  John  Fiske. 
1892     The  Voyage  of  the  Nyanza  Three  Years  in  the  Atlantic 

and  Pacific.     By  J.  Cumming  Dewar. 
1892    Writings  of  Colombus,  descriptive  of  the  Discovery  and 

Occupation  of  the  New  World.     Edited,  with  introduction 

by  P.  L.  Ford. 
1892    Career  of  Colombus.    By  Chas.  J.  Elton. 
1892    Life  of  Colombus.     By  C.  K.  Adams. 
1892    Life  and  Labors  of  John  Wray,  Pioneer  Missionary  in 

British  Guiana.     Compiled  by  Thomas  Rain. 

1892    Notes  on  British  Guiana.     By  Sir  Everard  im  Thum. 
1892    Argentina  and  the  Argentines.     By  T.  A.  Turner. 

1892  Travels  among  the  Great  Andes  of  the  Equator.  By 
Edward  Whymper. 

1892-94  History  of  the  New  World  Called  America.  By  E.  J. 
Payne. 

1893  An  Enumeration  of  the  Plants  Collected  in  Bolivia  by 
Miguel  Bang,  with  Descriptions  of  New  Genera  and  Spe- 
cies.    By  H.  H.  Rusby. 

1893     The  South  American  Republics.     By  T.  C.  Dawson. 
1893     Handbook  of  British  Guiana.     By  James  Rodway. 
1893     Idle  Days  in  Patagonia.     By  W.  H.  Hudson. 
1893     Christopher    Colombus:     His    own    Book    of    Privileges, 

1502,  Etc.     With  historical  introduction  by  H.  Harrisse, 

the  whole  compiled  and  edited  with  preface  by  G.  F. 

Stevens. 
1893    Journal  of  Colombus,  during  his  First  Voyage,  1492-3, 

and  Documents  Relating  to  the  Voyages  of  John  Cabot 


562  APPENDIX 

and  Gaspar  Corte  Real.  Translated,  with  notes,  etc.,  by 
Sir  Clements  Markham.     (Ilakluyt  Society.) 

1893     Tropical  America.     By  L.  N.  Ford. 

1893  The  History  and  Present  State  of  the  Sheep-Breeding 
Industry  in  the  Argentine  Republic.     By  Herbert  Gibson. 

1893  The  State  of  Para,  Notes  for  the  Exposition  of  Chicago, 
as  Authorised  by  the  Governor  of  Para,  Dr.  Lauro  So- 
dri. 

1894  Travels  of  a  Naturalist.     By  A.  Boucard. 

1894  By  Order  of  the  Sun  to  Chile  to  See  his  Total  Eclipse. 
By  J.  J.  Aubertin. 

1894  In  the  Guiana  Forest.     By  James  Rodway.     F.L.S. 

1895  The  Gold  Diggings  of  Cape  Horn:  A  Study  of  Life  in 
Tierra  del  Fuego  and  Patagonia.     By  J.  R.  Spears. 

1896  Venezuela;  or.  Two  Years  on  the  Spanish  Main.  By  W. 
E.  Wood. 

1896  Over  the  Andes,  from  the  Argentine  to  Chile  and  Peru. 
By  May  Crommelin. 

1896    John  Cabot.     By  Henry  Harrisse. 

1896  Documents  and  Maps  on  the  Boundary  Question  between 
Venezuela  and  British  Guiana  from  the  Capuchin  Ar- 
chives in  Rome.     By  J.  Strickland. 

1896     The  West  Indies  and  Spanish  Main.     By  James  Rodway. 

1896  Venezuela:  A  Land  where  it  's  Always  Summer.  By 
W.  E.  Curtis. 

1896  Three  Gringos  in  Venezuela  and  Central  America.  By 
Richard  Harding  Davis. 

1897  Records  of  the  Scottish  Settlers  in  the  River  Plate  and 
Their  Churches.     By  James  Dodds. 

Undated.  Argentine,  Patagonian,  and  Chilean  Sketches,  with 
a  few  Notes  on  Uruguay.     By  C.  E.  Akers. 

1898  Boundary  Agreement  in  Force  between  the  Argentine 
Republic  and  Chile.    By  Dr.  Emilio  Lamarea. 

1898     Twenty-five  Years  in  British  Guiana.     By  Henry  Kirke. 
1898     South  American  Sketches.     By  Robert  Crawford. 
1898     Spanish  America.     By  J.  W.  Root. 
1898     Bibliography  of  the  Anthropology  of  Peru.     By  Geo.  A. 

Dorsey. 
1898     The    Establishment   of    Spanish   Rule   in    America.    By 

Benjamin  Moses. 


APPENDIX  563 

1898     The  Dwarf  Tribe  of  the  Upper  Amazon.     By  D.  G.  Brin- 

ton. 
1898     Twenty-five  Years  in  British  Guiana,     By  Henry  Kirke. 

1898  Spain  and  Her  Colonies.     By  J.  W.  Root. 

1899  Temperate  Chile.     By  W.  A.  Smith. 

1899  Notes  on  the  Natural  History  of  the  Aconcagua  Valleys, 
from  Fitzgerald's  "Highest  Andes."     By  Philip  Gosse. 

1899  The  Highest  Andes,  a  Record  of  the  First  Ascent  of  Acon- 
cagua and  Tupungato  in  Argentina,  and  the  Exploration 
of  the  Surrounding  Valleys.     By  E.  A.  Fitzgerald. 

1899  The  Ores  of  Colombia.  By  H.  W.  Nichols  and  0.  C.  Far- 
rington. 

1900  South  America.     By  F.  G.  Carpenter. 

1900     The  Colombian  and  Venezuelan  Republics.     By  Wm.  L. 

Scruggs. 
1900-4     The  Spanish  Conquest  in  America  in  Relation  to  the 

History  of  Slavery  and  of  the  Government  of  Colonies. 

New  edition,  with  introduction  and  notes.     By  M.  Oppen- 

heim. 

1900  Traveling  Impression  in,  and  Notes  on,  Peru.  By  F. 
Seebee. 

1901  The  Bolivian  Andes:  Climbing  and  Exploration  in  the 
Cordillera  Real  in  1898-1900.     By  Sir  Martin  Conway. 

1901     The  Land  of  the  Amazons.     By  Baron  de  Santa-Anna 

Nery.  Translated  by  George  Humphrey. 
1901  Through  Patagonia.  By  W.  D.  Campbell. 
1901    A.  H.  Keane's  Central  and  South  America.     Edited  by 

Sir  Clements  IMarkham. 
1901     The  South  American  Republics.     By  W.  F.  Markwich  and 

W.  A.  Smith. 
1901     The  Question  of  the  Pacific.     An  edition  in  English  of 

Dr.  Maurtua's  work.     By  F.  A.  Pezet. 

1901  A  Vanished  Arcadia.     By  R.  B.  Cunninghame  Graham. 

1902  The  Great  Mountains,  and  Forests  of  South  America.  By 
Paul  Fountain. 

1902     Ancient  Peruvian  Art.     By  A.  H.  Keane. 

1902     The  Caura.     By  E.  Andre. 

1902     Aconcagua  and  Tierra  del  Fuego,  a  Book  of  Climbing, 

Travel,  and  Exploration.     By  Sir  Martin  Conway. 
19 —    Picturesque  Paraguay.     By  Alexander  K.  Macdonald. 


564.  APPENDIX 

1902  Climate  of  the  Argentine  Republic,  Compiled  from  ob- 
servations made  to  the  end  of  the  year  1900.  By  "Walter 
G.  Davis. 

1902     Down  the  Orinoco  in  a  Canoe,     By  S.  Perez  Triana. 

1902  Through  the  Heart  of  Patagonia.  By  Hesketh  H.  Prich- 
ard. 

1903  Great  Argentina.     By  Francisco  Seeber. 

1903     The  Independence  of  the  South  American  Republics.     By 

F.  L.  Paxon. 
1903     The  South  American  Republics.     By  Thomas  C.  Dawson. 
1903     To  the  Falls  of  Iguazu.     By  W.  S.  Barclay. 

1903  Trade  and  Travel  in  South  America.     By  F.  Alcock. 
1903-4     Christopher  Columbus,  his  Life,  his  Work,  his  Remaias, 

as  revealed  by  Original  Records,  with   Essay  on  Peter 
Martyr  and  Las  Casas.     By  J,  B.  Thacher. 

1904  A  Naturalist  in  the  Guianas.     By  E.  Andre. 

1904  The  Great  Mountains  and  Forests  of  South  America  (2nd 
edition).     By  Paul  Fountain. 

1904    South  American  Sketches.     By  W.  H.  Hudson. 

1904  An  Account  of  the  Spanish  Settlements  in  South  Amer- 
ica.    Anonymous. 

1904  A  History  of  South  America  (1854-1904).  By  C.  E. 
Akers. 

1904  Argentine  Shows  and  Live  Stock.  By  Professor  Robert 
Wallace. 

1904  The  Countries  of  the  King's  Award.  By  Col.  Sir  Thomas 
Holdich. 

1904  Among  the  Indians  of  the  Paraguayan  Chaco.  By  W.  B. 
Barbrooke  Grubb. 

1905  The  Colombian  and  Venezuelan  Republics.  By  W.  L. 
Scruggs. 

1905  Through  Five  Republics  of  South  America.  By  Percy 
F.  Martin. 

1906  Panama  to  Patagonia.     By  C.  M.  Pepper. 
1906     The  Republic  of  Colombia.     By  F.  L.  Petre. 
1906    Bolivia.     By  Marie  Robinson  Wright. 

1906  Christopher  Colombus,  and  the  New  World  of  his  Dis- 
covery.    By  Filson  Young. 

1907  Modern  Argentina.     By  W.  H.  Koebel. 

1907     The  Birds  of  Tierra  del  Fuego.     By  R.  Crawshay. 


APPENDIX  565 

1907    Humboldt's  Voyage.    Translated  and  edited  by  T.  Ross. 
1907     The  Continent  of  Opportunity,  the  South  American  Re- 
publics.    By  F.  E.  Clark,  D.D. 

1907  Chile.     By  G.  F.  Seott-Elliot. 

1908  Richard  Spruce.  Notes  of  a  Botanist  on  the  Amazons  and 
Andes.     Edited  and  condensed.     By  A.  R.  Wallace. 

1908  American  Supremacy:  The  Rise  and  Progress  of  the 
Latin  American  Republics,  and  Relations  to  the  United 
States  under  the  Monroe  Doctrine.  By  George  W.  Crich- 
field. 

1908  A  Bibliography  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  Knight.  By  T.  N. 
Brushfield. 

1908  The  Andes  and  the  Amazon:  Life  and  Travel  in  Peru. 
By  C.  R.  Enock. 

1908  Peru.     By  Reginald  C.  Enock. 

1909  Explorers  in  the  New  World,  before  and  after  Colombus ; 
and  the  Story  of  the  Jesuit  Missions  of  Paraguay.  By 
Marion  McMurrough  Mulhall. 

1909     The  Argentine  Year  Book.     By  H.  W.  Farrell. 

1909     Bartholomew  de  Las  Casas.     By  F.  A.  Macnutt. 

1909  Yachting  in  the  Pacific.  Notes  of  Travel  in  Peru,  Ecua- 
dor, Etc.     By  A.  Mann. 

1909    The  Great  Pacific  Coast.    By  C.  R.  Enock. 

1909  The  Journal  of  an  Expedition  across  Venezuela  and  Col- 
ombia.    By  Hiram  Bingham, 

1909  Peru,  its  Story,  People,  Religion.  By  Geraldine  Guin- 
ness. 

1909  Official  Handbook  of  British  Guiana. 

1910  Argentina :  Past  and  Present.     By  W.  H.  Koebel. 

1910    Manual  of  Argentine  Railways.     By  S.  H.  M.  Killik. 

1910  Ups  and  Downs  of  a  Wandering  Life.  Roaming  Adven- 
tures in  Argentine,  Paraguay,  Venezuela,  Etc.  By  Wal- 
ter Seymour. 

1910     On  Sea  and  Land.     By  H.  W.  Case. 

1910    The  Andes  and  the  Amazon.     By  C.  R.  Enock. 

1910.     The  Argentine  Republic.     By  A.  Stuart  Pennington. 

1910  Our  Search  for  a  Wilderness,  An  Account  of  Two  Or- 
nithological Expeditions  to  Venezuela  and  to  British 
Guiana.     By  M.  B.  and  C.  W.  Beele. 

1910     Simon  Bolivar,  "El  Libertador."    By  Lindon  Bates. 


566  APPENDIX 

1910     Up  the  Orinoco  and  down  the  Magdalena.     By  H.  J.  Moz- 

ans. 
1910    Life  of  Sir  Woodbine  Parish,  or  Early  Days  in  Argentina. 

By  the  Hon.  Nina  Kay  Shuttleworth. 
1910     The  United  States  of  Brazil,  with  a  Chapter  on  Uruguay. 

By  C.  W.  Domville-Fife. 
1910     The  Other  Americans.     By  A.  Ruhl. 
1910     The  Amazons  in  Antiquity  and  Modern  Times.    By  G. 

C.  Rothery. 

1910  Argentina.     By  W.  A.  Hirst. 

1911  Early  Spanish  Voyages  to  the  Strait  of  Magellan.  Trans- 
lated and  edited,  with  a  preface,  introduction  and  notes 
by  Sir  Clements  Markham.     (Hakluyt  Society.) 

1911     An  Unknown  People  in  an  Unknown  Land.    By  W.  Bar- 

brooke  Grubb. 
1911     Brazil.    By  Pierre  Denis. 
1911     The  Family  and  Heirs  of  Sir  Francis  Drake.     By  Lady 

Elliot  Drake. 
1911     A   Woman's  Winter  in   South  America.     By  Charlotte 

Cameron. 
1911     Uruguay.     By  W.  H.  Koebel. 
1911     The  Argentine  in  the  Twentieth  Century.    By  Albert  B, 

Martinez. 
1911     Under  the  Roof  of  the  Jungle.     By  Charles  Livingston 

Bull. 
1911     The  Ten  Republics.     By  Robert  P.  Porter. 
1911     Peru  of  the  Twentieth  Century.     By  Percy  F.  Martin. 
1911     The  Wilds  of  Patagonia.     By  Carl  Scottsberg. 
1911     South  America  To-day.     By  Georges  Clemenceau. 
1911     Through  the  Wilderness  of  Brazil.     By  W.  A.  Cook. 
1911     In  the  Guiana  Forest   (2nd  Edition).     By  James  Rod- 
way,  F.  L.  S. 
1911     Wheat  Growing  in  Canada,  The  United  States,  and  the 

Argentine.     By  W.  P.  Rutter. 
1911     The  Rise  of  British  Guiana.     Compiled  by  C.  A.  Harris 

and  J.  A.  J.  de  Villiers.     (Hakluyt  Society.) 
1911     Along  the  Andes  and  down  the  Amazon,     By  H.  J.  Moz- 

ans. 
1911     Adventures  in  Search  of  a  Living  in  Spanish  America. 

By  "Vaquero." 


APPENDIX  567 

1911    Simon  Bolivar.    By  F.  L.  Petre. 

1911    Across  South  America.     By  Hiram  Bingham. 

1911     Old  Panama  and  Castillo  del  Oro.     By  R.  D.  Johnson. 

1911  The  Incas  of  Peru  (2nd  Edition).  By  Sir  Clements 
Markham. 

1912  The  Putumayo,  the  Devil's  Paradise.  By  W.  E.  Harden- 
burg. 

1912     The  Sea  and  the  Jungle.     By  H.  M.  Tomlinson. 

1912    Venezuela.     By  Leonard  V.  Dalton. 

1912  Early  Man  in  South  America.  By  Ales  Hrdlicka  in  col- 
laboration with  W.  H.  Holmes,  B.  Willis,  Fr.  E.  Wright, 
and  Clarence  N.  Fenner. 

1912     South  America.     By  W.  H.  Koebel. 

1912    Where  Socialism  Failed.     By  Stewart  Grahame. 

1912    The  Secret  of  the  Pacific.     By  C.  Reginald  Enock. 

1912    Aborigines  of  South  America.    By  Colonel  Church. 

1912  The  Conquest  of  New  Granada.  By  Sir  Clements  Mark- 
ham. 

1912     South  American  Archceology.     By  Thomas  A.  Joyce. 

1912  In  Jesuit  Land:  The  Jesuit  Missions  of  Paraguay.  By 
W.  H.  Koebel. 

1912     The  Independence  of  Chile.     By  A.  S.  M.  Chisholm. 

1912  South  America:  Observations  and  Impressions.  By 
James  Bryce. 

1912     In  the  Amazon  Jungle.     By  A.  Lange. 

1912     The  Path  of  the  Conquistadores.     By  L.  Bates. 

1912     Guiana :  British,  French  and  Dutch.     By  James  Rodway. 

1912  High  Mountain  Climbing  in  Peru  and  Bolivia.  By  A. 
S.  Peck. 

1913  South  America  (The  Making  of  the  Nations  Series).  By 
W.  H.  Koebel. 

1913    Modem  Chile.    By  W.  H.  Koebel. 

1913     The    Lords    of    the    Devil's    Paradise.     The    Putumayo 

Atrocities.     By  G.  Sidney  Paternoster. 
1913     The  Putumayo  Red  Book.     By  N.  T. 
1913     To  the  River  Plate  and  Back.     By  J.  W.  Holland. 
1913    Latin  America:  Its  Rise  and  Progress.     By  F.   Garcia 

Calderen. 
1913     The    Venezuelan    Boundary    Controversy.     By    Grover 

Cleveland. 


568  APPENDIX 

1913    Panama:   the   Creation,   Destruction,   and   Resurrection. 

By  Bunau-Varilla. 
1913     Colombia.     By  Phanor  J.  Eder. 
1913    South  America :  A  Supplementary  Geography.    By  J.  F. 

and  A.  H.  Chamberlain. 
1913    Observations  on  the  Natives  of  the  Patagonian  Channel 

Region.     By  Carl  Scottsberg. 
1913    Across  Unknown  South  America.    By  A.  Henry  Savage 

Landor. 
1913     The  Travels  of  Ellen  Cornish. 

1913    A  Tour  through  South  America.     By  A.  S.  Forrest. 
1913     In  the  Wonderland  of  Peru.     By  Hiram  Bingham. 
1913    Brazil  in  1913.     By  J.  C.  Cakenfull. 
1913     Brazil  and  Portugal  in  1809    (Manuscript  Marginalia). 

By  George  "W.  Robinson. 

1913  O'Higgins  of  Chile.    By  'J.  J.  Mehegan. 

1914  Ecuador.    By  C.  Reginald  Enock. 
1914    Bolivia.     By  Paul  Walle. 

1914    Chile.    By  George  J.  Mills. 

1914    Argentina.     By  G.  J.  Mills. 

1914    North  Brazil.     By  E.  C.  Buley. 

1914    Peru.    By  E.  Charles  Vivian. 

1914    South  Brazil.     By  E.  C.  Buley. 

1914    New  Light  on  Drake.     By  Zelia  Nuttal  (Hakluyt  Society) . 

1914    The  Romance  of  the  River  Plate.     By  W.  H.  Koebel. 

1914  The  Upper  Reaches  of  the  Amazon.  By  Joseph  F.  Wood- 
ruffe. 

1914    The  River  Amazon.    By  Paul  Fountain. 

1914  The  Spanish  Dependencies  in  South  America.  By  B. 
Moses. 

1914    The  Amazing  Argentine.     By  John  Foster  Eraser. 

1914  A  Walloon  Family  in  America.  Lockwood  de  Forest  and 
his  Forebears,  1500-1848.  Together  with  a  Voyage  to 
Guiana,  being  the  Journal  of  Jesse  de  Forest  and  his  Col- 
onists.    By  Mrs.  Robert  W.  de  Forest. 

1914  Under  the  Southern  Cross  in  South  America.  By  Wil- 
liam Buekman, 

1914  The  Scottish  National  Antarctic  Expedition.  The  Whale 
Fisheries  of  the  Falkland  Islands  and  Dependencies.  By 
Theodore  E.  Salvesen. 


APPENDIX  569 

1914    The  Lower  Amazon.    By  Algot  Lange. 

1914  Northern  Patagonia:  Character  and  Resources.  By  Bai- 
ley Willis. 

1914    Mysterious  South  America.     By  A.  Henry  Savage  Landor. 

1914  Through  the  Brazilian  Wilderness.  By  Theodore  Roose- 
velt. 

1914  The  New  Brazil  (2nd  Edition).  By  Marie  Robinson 
Wright. 

1914  The  Timbers  of  British  Guiana.  By  Herbert  Stone  and 
Dr.  W.  G.  Freeman. 

1914    West  Indies  and  Guiana.     By  Algernon  E.  Aspinall. 

1914    Chile :  Its  Land  and  People.    By  F.  J.  G.  Maitland. 

1914     Colombia.    By  V.  Levine. 

1914    The  South  American  Tour.    By  Annie  S.  Peck. 

1914    The  Two  Americas.    By  General  R.  Reys. 

1914    Forty  Years  in  Brazil.     By  Frank  Bennett. 

1914  A  Church  in  the  Wilds,  the  South  American  Mission  to 
the  Paraguayan  Chaco.    By  W.  B.  Grubb. 

1915  Brazil  and  the  Brazilians.     By  G.  J.  Bruce. 
1915     South  of  Panama    By  Dr.  Edward  Alsworth  Ross. 

1915  The  Rubber  Industry  of  the  Amazon  and  how  its  Suprem- 
acy can  be  Maintained.  By  Joseph  F.  Woodrofe  and 
Harold  Hamel  Smith,  with  a  foreword  by  Viscount  Bryce. 

1915     The  Real  Argentine.    By  J.  M.  Hammerton. 

1915  The  Northwest  Amazons.  Notes  of  Some  Months  Spent 
Among  Cannibal  Tribes.     By  Captain  Thomas  Whiffen. 

1915  Mineral  Resources  of  Minas  Geraes  (Brazil).  By  Albert 
F.  Calvert. 

1915  The  Amazon  as  a  River,  a  Problem,  and  a  Call.  By  the 
Rev.  0.  R.  Walkey. 

1915     The  South  Americans.     By  W.  H.  Koebel. 

1915  (?)  The  Plateau  Peoples  of  South  America.  By  Alexan- 
der A.  Adams. 

1915  Colombia  and  the  United  States.     By  Norman  Thomson. 

1916  Through  South  America's  Southland.  With  an  Account 
of  the  Roosevelt  Scientific  Expedition  to  South  America. 
By  the  Rev.  J.  A.  Zahn  (H.  J.  Mozans). 

1917  Paraguay.    By  W.  H.  Koebel. 


BRITISH  ARRIVALS  IN  THE  RIVER  PLATE 

AT  THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE 

XIXTH  CENTURY 

FROM  ENGLAND 

Names  Tear  of  Arrival 

Robert  Jackson  1802 

Oliver  Jump    1808 Proprietor 

Philip  Parkin 1809 

James  Barton 1809 Proprietor 

Robert  Billinghurst 1809 Proprietor 

John  Postlethwaite  1810 

John  Ludlam 1810 Proprietor 

D.  M'Kinlay 1811  Proprietor 

S.  Puddieomb 1812 

John  Stevenson 1812 

James   Brittain 1812 Proprietor 

William  Cope    1812 Proprietor 

Thomas  Nelson 1814 

Spenser  Davis  Weller 1815 

Joseph  Lee 1815 

Sam  Chapman 1813 

David  Price  1813 

Thomas  Newton 1811 

John  Turner 1814 

Joshua  Thwaites  1816  Proprietor 

N.  B.  Nisbet 1816 

T.  H.  Bayley 1817 Proprietor 

John  Appleyard 1818 Proprietor 

John  Carlisle 1818 

John  Harratt 1818 

John  Tabberer 1818 Proprietor 

Thomas  I.  C.  Gowland 1812 

James  Kelshaw  1819 

John  Sillietoe 1820 Proprietor 

570 


APPENDIX  571 

Names  Year  of  Arrival 

George  Nuttall 1820 

George  Brown  1822 

E.  S.  Harvey 1822 

John  and  Wm.  Downes 1822 Proprietor 

Joseph  Crowther 1822 

Samuel  Lafone 1823 

Merchants    36 

Proprietors    13 

FROM  IRELAND 

Names  Tear  of  Arrival 

John  Dillon   1806 

Richard  Duffy 1811 

R.  Montgomery 1814 

Peter  Sheridan 1817 Proprietor 

John  Gullinan,  M.  D 1818 Proprietor 

Merchants    5 

Proprietors    2 

FROM  SCOTLAND 

Names  Year  of  Arrival 

Thomas  Fair 1809  Proprietor 

David  Spalding 1806  Proprietor 

Alexander  Wilson 1808 

John  Miller 1810 Proprietor 

John  Orr 1811   Proprietor 

George  M'Farlane 1813  Proprietor 

John  Parish  Robertson  "] 

I  1813  Proprietors 

Wm.  Parish  Robertson  J 

John  Carter 1806 Proprietor 

John  Watson 1815 

William  M'Quake  1816  Proprietor 

Andrew  C.  Dick,  M.  D 1817 Proprietor 

John  M'Fariane   1818 

Duncan  Stewart 1818 

Henry  Hoker 1818 

Stewart  D.  Campbell 1820 


572  APPENDIX 

Names  Year  of  Arrival 

Duncan  M'Nab   1820 

John  Gibson  . .] 1820 

George  Gibson  J 1^24 Proprietors 

Adam  Butters 1822 

Thomas  Duguid 1822 

William  Thompson 1822 

John  M'Dougall   1822 

James  Miller 1821 

John  Stewart 1824 

C.  Watson 1824 

William  Loekhart  1824 

Eobert  Mathison 1824 

John  M'Clelland 1824 

Merchants    28 

Proprietors    12 

The  above  list  is  taken  from  ' '  Records  of  the  Scottish  Settlers 
in  the  River  Plate  and  Their  Churches,"  by  James  Dobbs. 


INDEX 


Alfinger,  the  Prussian,  529 
Aljubarrota,  field  of,  6 
Alliance,  between  England  and  Port- 
ugal, 5 
Alligator,      Waterton's      adventure 

with  an,  402,  403 
Althaus,   Colonel,   276 
Amazon,   valley   explored   by    Bates 
and   Wallace,   408-415 
characteristics    of    the,    410,    412, 

413 
yellow  fever  attacks  valley  of  the, 
417 
Andes,  early  crossings  of  the,  262, 
276 
Darwin  crosses  the,  408 
Anson,  Commodore  George,  117,  240 
Aquatints,  Sir  Henry  Chamberlain's 

South   American,  449 
Argentina,  fate  of  British  prisoners 
in,  153 
character  of  army  of,  202,  203 
William   Brown   becomes  admiral 

for,  229 
war  between  Brazil  and,  328 
character  of  na\'7  of,  376 
financial  crisis  in    (1890),  484 
center  of  British  South  American 
settlers,  485 
Araucanians,      Benavides      becomes 
leader  of,   219 
conversion  of  the,  491 
Armitage,     History    of     Brazil     by 

John,  455 
Australians,  settle  in  Paraguay,  506 
Authors,     professions    and     occupa- 
tions   of    British    South    Amer- 
ican, 440 


B 


Bacalhao,    (dried    cod),    Anglo-Bra- 
zilian trade  in,  319 
Bahia,  English  trading  post  founded 
at,  47 
raided  by  Withrington,  59 
visited  by  Sir  Home  Popham,  143 
Portuguese   Court  stops   first   at, 

285 
negresses  of,  286 

573 


Bahia — continued 

United    States    ship    Constitution 
defeats  British  frigate  Java  off, 
297 
attacked    by    Admiral    Cochrane, 

303,  305 
Irish  colony  sent  to,  334 
Baker,  Admiral,  assists  Emperor  and 
Empress    escape    from    Brazil, 
344-363 
Balenar,  town  of,  112 
Bancroft,    "Essay   on   Natural   His- 
tory   of    Guiana,"    by    Edward, 
478 
Barcelona,  treasure  of,  182 
Barker,  Andrew,  38 

death  of,  39 
Bates,  Henry,  explores  the  Amazon, 

408-412,   458 
Bats,  characteristics  of  the  vampire, 
399 
Spruce's  combat  with,  416 
Beamish,  Major,  170 
Beggars,  in  Brazil,  317 
Beltran,  the  monk,  202 
Benavides,  career  of,  218-223 
captured  by  Chileans,  219 
wins  favor  of  San  Martin,  219 
commands  Araucanians,  219 
captures  American  ships,  220 
prepares  invasion  of  Chile,  220 
end  of,  222 
Beresford,  campaign  of  General,  147 
Berrie,   Captain,   77 
Bibliography,  prior  to  1870,  421-480 
Billinghurst,  Robert,  501 
Biscay,  Bay  of,  5 
Blair,    incident   of    famous    duelist, 

160 
Blanco,  Commodore,  205,  242 

Mrs.  Commodore,  207 
Bogota,  Mrs.  English's  house  at,  186 
gas  plant  built  in,  187 
Bolivar's  house  near,  245 
Christmas  celebrations  at,  273 
Bolivar,  character  of,   167,   184-186, 
451 
signs     contract     witli     Deverevtx, 

176 
thanks  British  and  Irish  Legions, 

ISO 
navy  of,  183 


574. 


INDEX 


Bolivar — continued 

cordiality  to  British,  184,  185,  212, 
227,  243 

gives  portrait  to  Captain  Brown, 
236 

ball  in  honor  of,  245 

home  of  General,  245 

interests  himself  in  Peruvian  min- 
ing, 250 
Bolivia,  W.  Wilson  appointed  min- 
ister to   (1837),  241 
Bowles,  Captain,  237 
Boyaca,  battle  of,  173,  185 
Brazil,  English  trade  with,  49,  291, 
319 

end  of  English  relations  with,  56 

Cavendish  raids,  63 

attacks  on,  70 

Portuguese  policy  toward,  104 

Jesuits  in,  105,  106 

influence  of  Spanish  on  policy  of, 
281 

British  fight  Portuguese  in,  282 

hostile  to  British,  282 

offers  refuge  to  Portuguese  roy- 
alty, 283 

Portuguese  Court  arrives  in,  287 

receives  Prince  Joao  of  Portugal, 
288 

becomes  a  kingdom,  289 

makes     commercial    treaty     with 
England,  289 

grants     ecclesiastical     rights     to 
British,  289 

invaded  bv  British  merchants,  291 

guarded  by  British  fleet,  293,  297 

experience  of  royalty  in,  298,  299 

begins  rebellion  against  Portugal, 
300 

Admiral  Cochrane  builds  up  navj 
of,  303 

revolution  breaks  out  in,  305 

revolution  is  suppressed  bj'  Brit- 
ish, 306 

British    prize    money    claims    re- 
fused by,  309 

court  regulations  in,  312,  314,  315 

character  of  royalty  in,  313,  314, 
315 

American  Minister  resents  regula- 
tions of,  314-316 

Portuguese  beggars  in,  317 

British  merchants  in,  318-320 

gets    first    taste    of    mutton    and 
champagne,  323 

hospitality  of  landowners  in,  323- 
324 

British  goods  fill  shops  of,  326 

British  buy  mines  in,  326 


Brazil — con  tinned 
establishment  of  regular  army  in, 

327 
makes  war  on  Argentina,  328 
treatment  of  Irish  in,  331 
Irish  and  German  soldiers  revolt 

against,  333 
appeals    to    British,    French    and 

Portuguese  ships  for   help,   333 
Dom  Pedro  I  abdicates  throne  of, 

341-363 
expiration  of  British  Commercial 

treaty  with,  364 
steamer  communication  line  stim- 
ulates British  trade,  365 
amount  of  annual  British  capital 

engaged  in,  365 
Quakers    begin    anti-slave    trade 

campaign  in,  369 
first   official   railway   journey    in, 

370 
History    of    Brazil,    bv     Charles 

Brockwell,  432 
History     of     Brazil,     by     Robert 

Southey,  446 
History  of  Brazil,  by  James  Hen- 
derson, 447 
books  on  the  court  of,  448 
History  of  Brazil,  by  John  Armi- 

tage,  455 
Travels    in    the    Interior    of,    by 

George   Gardiner,   458 
Brazil  and  the  Brazilians,  by  Kid- 
der and  Fletcher,  471 
British  shipping  trade  with,  514, 

515,  532 
German  trade  increases  with,  532 
present  unpopularity  of  Germans 

in,  546 
Brion,  Admiral,  183,  184 
British,      attitude     toward      South 

American     independence,      164, 

165 
enlist  in  South  American  War  of 

Independence,  168,   170 
in  Venezuela,  171 
sickness  among,   172 
defeat  Spanish,  173 
merchants  in  South  America,  174, 

244,   260 
thanked  by  Bolivar  and  Colombian 

Congress,  180 
find  treasure  at  Barcelona,  182 
serve  in  Bolivar's  navy,  183 
officers  settle  in  Colombia,  187 
officers  in  Chilean  navy,  203 
friendship  for  Chileans,  206 
build    racecourse    at    Valparaiso, 

206 


INDEX 


575 


British — continued 

South  Americans  erect  monuments 

to,  213 
surrender  to  Argentines,  150 
commanders  on  Pacific  Coast,  217, 

218,  236 
otEcers  on  staff  of  Bolivar,  227 
naval  warfare  with  United  States, 

239 
consuls  appointed  to  South  Amer- 
ica, 240 
population  in  Valparaiso    (1823), 

247 
speculate  in  Peruvian  mines,  249 
vessels    survey    South    American 

coast,   251,   275 
first  called  "Gringo,"  253 
occupations   after    war    of   Liber- 
ation, 257,  258,  485 
doctors  in  South  America,  257 
open     hotels     throughout     South 

America,  258 
become  South  Americans,  259,  267, 

496-498,  528 
shopkeepers  in  South  America,  260 
attracted  to  Chile,  260 
trade  methods  with  South  Amer- 
ica, 264,  527,  533 
exports  to  South   America,  265 
defense  against  Indians,  268 
win  ten  years'  pearl  fishing  rights, 

274 
cross  South  American  Continent, 

276 
navigate  Huallaga  River,  277 
first   to   navigate   Ucayali    River, 

278 
allowed  to  reside,  marry  and  navi- 
gate in  Paraguay,  280 
attempt  to  settle  in  Brazil,  281 
convoy  Portuguese  Court  to  Bra- 
zil, 287 
make  commercial  treaty  with  Bra- 
zil, 289 
build  their  first  church  in  Brazil, 

290 
fleet  guards  Brazil,  293,  297 
naval  commanders'  increasing  dif- 
ficulties, 300 
sjTnpathies      divided      in      South 
"  America,  301,  528 
blockade  Rio  Harbor,  301 
suppress  revolution  in  Brazil,  306 
are    cheated    of    prize    money    by 

Brazilians,  309 
take  Pernambuco  and  gain  prize 

money,  310 
introduce  table  mutton  and  cham- 
pagne into  Brazil,  322,  323 


British — continued 

stock  Brazilian  shops  with  goods, 
326 

buy  Brazilian  mines    (1825),  326 

organize  Brazilian  cavalry  regi- 
ment, 328 

aid  Dom  Pedro  I  to  escape  from 
Brazil,  342-363 

commercial  treaty  with  Brazil  ex- 
pires, 364 

capital  annually  engaged  in  Bra- 
zil   (1853),  365 

introduce  slave  trade  into  Brazil, 
365 

attitude  toward  negro  in  theory 
and  practice,  370 

hotels  in  Rio,  372 

and  French  make  expedition  up 
river  Parana,  380 

tortured  by  Paraguayans,  388 

naturalists  in  South  America, 
395-419 

early  geographical  works  on  South 
America  by,  427-430 

officers  meeting  with  Bolivar,  451 

as  capitalists  in  South  America, 
480 

nitrate  industry  in  Chile,  483 

banking  system  in  South  Amer- 
ica, 484 

commimities  in  South  America, 
484-488 

Buenos  Aires  greatest  South 
American  center  of,  485 

churches  and  missionaries  in 
South  America  486^93 

hospital  in  Buenos  Aires,  488 

sheep  industry  in  South  America, 
498 

cattle  industry  in  South  America, 
500 

develop  meat  shipping  industry  in 
South  America,  500 

sport  in  South  America,  511 

shipping  and  railway  achieve- 
ments, 512-524 

coflfee  trade  with  Brazil,  516 

prestige  in  South  America  due  to 
their   railways,   517 

lay  first  cable  to  South  America, 
523 

build  tramways  in  South  America, 
524 

financial  assistance  to  South 
America,  525,  526 

good  faith  in  South  America,  530- 
531 

trade  falls  off  with  South  Amer- 
ica, 531,  533,  535 


676 


INDEX 


British — continued 

trade  fight  with  Germans  in  South 
America,  541 

future      relations      with      South 
Americans,  549 
Brockwell,    History    of    Brazil,    by 

Charles,  432 
Brown,  Admiral  William,  229-231 

founds  Argentine  navy,  229 

destroys  Spanish  fleet,  229 

blockades  Callao,  230 

captures  Guayaquil,  230 

taken  prisoner,  231 

exchanged  for  governor  of  Guaya- 
quil, 231 
Brown,  Captain  Thomas,  236 

sails  for  South  America,  236 

receives  Bolivar's  portrait,  236 

wins    General    Rodil's    friendship, 
237 
Bucaneers,  origin  of,  80 
history  of,  86-91 

Basil  Ringrose,  90 

Captain  Sharp,  91 

Captain  Dampier,  93 

Sir  Henry  Morgan,  94 
Buenos   Aires,   slave   establishments 
in,   108 

capture  by  British,  145 

surrender  by  British  of,  146 

takes  possession   of   Falkland   Is- 
lands, 162 

Scottish  milkmaids  introduced  to, 
258 

blockaded  by  Anglo-French  squad- 
ron, 378,  380 

character  of  squadron  of,  383 

"Narrative    of    a    Journey    from 
Santiago  to,"  443 

greatest  British  South  American 
community  in,  485 
Burton,   South   American   books   by 

Sir  Richard,  475 
Byron,  Commodore,  131 


C 


Cable,  British  lay  first  South  Amer- 
ican   (1874),  523 

Cabot,   Sebastian,  story  of,   11 

Cabral,  Pedro  Alvarez,  4,  282 

Cacafuego,  capture  of,  35 

Callao,     Admiral     William     Brown 
blockades,  230 
frigate  Briton  visits,  240 

Campbell,  Vice  Admiral,  130 

Cape  of  Good  Hope,  expedition  to, 
143 

Cape  Town,  capture  of,  144 


Carabobo,  battle  of  (1821),  180 
Caracas,  premature  capitulation  of, 

181 
Carrera,  Jos6  Miguel,  194 

opposes  Colonel  Mackenna,  194 
obtains  control  of  Chile,  195 
deserts    O'Higgins    at    Rancagua, 

195 
kills   Colonel  Mackenna   in   duel, 
196 
Cartagena,  capture  of,  36,   174 

game  hunting  in,  270 
Cavalry,   capture   of    British   vessel 
by   South   American,    147 
feats  in  war  of  South  American, 

148 
William    Miller   commands   Peru- 
vian, 209 
Cavendish,  Thomas,  career  of,  61 

cruelty  of,  62 
Chagres,  character  of  river,  252 
Chamberlayne,  tragic  death  of  Cap- 
tain, 180 
Champagne,    Brazil    introduced    to, 

323 
Chanticleer,  voyage  of  the,  251,  252 
Character,  Drake,  34,  37 
Edward  Fenton,  56 
Thomas  Cavendish,  62,   63 
Straits  of  Magellan,  66,  131 
James  Lancaster,  69 
Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  74,  77 
Antonio  de  Berreo,  75 
Orinoco  River,  75 
Gondomar,  79 
of  the  Bucaneers,  82-92 
Sir  Henry  Morgan,  94,  95 
Ambrose  O'Higgins,   112,   190 
Commodore  George  Anson,   127 
Vice-Admiral  Campbell,   131 
Portuguese,  131,  143,  282 
British     missionaries,     137,     247, 

489-493 
Brazilian  soldiers,  143,  283,  305, 

335 
English  in  Buenos  Aires,  146 
Lieutenant-General  Whitelock,  150 
Argentines,  151,  202 
Guiana,  159,  160 
South  American  document,  165 
Latin  Americans,  165,  248,  256 
San   Martin,    167,    199,   215,   216, 

217 
South    American    War    of    Inde- 
pendence, 168,  169 
Colombians,  169,  170 
British  troops  in  South  America, 

174 
General  English,  175 


INDEX 


577 


Character — continued 

General  Devereux,  176-179 
Irish  Legion,  179 
Admiral  Brion,   183,  184 
Liberator    Bolivar,    167,    184-186, 

243,  246,  451 
Mrs.  English,  186 
Bernardo  O'Higgins,  190,  191,  192 
Colonel  John  Mackenna,   193 
Jose  Miguel  Carrera,  194,  195,  196 
Admiral   Cochrane,    197-199,   303, 

304,  310 
Lady  Cochrane,  200 
the  Gaucho,  201,  252 
William  Miller,  202 
Chilean  fleet,  204 
Peruvian  cavalry,  209,  210 
British    naval    officers    in    South 

America,  218,  301,  302 
Benavides,  218,  219,  226 
Peneleo,  222 
Araucanian  Indians,  223,  267,  268, 

277 
Admiral  William  Brown,  229 
General  Rodil,  242 
South  American  society,  256 
British    in    South    America,    259, 

321,  441,  504,  528,  530,  540 
South  American  priests,  263,  413 
South  American  trade,  264,  527 
a  Colombian  dinner,  272 
Prince  Joao  of  Portugal  and  Bra- 
zil, 84,  295,  297,  299,  319 
British  merchants  in  Brazil,  291, 

318,  320 
British    military   rule    in    Brazil, 

306,  307 
the  Brazilians,  320,  321,  322,  323, 

366 
sailors  in  Brazilian  navy,  303 
Irish   immigrants   to   Brazil,   329, 

332 
Brazilian    Court,    312,    313,    314, 

315,  316 
Emperor   Pedro  I,   313,   328,  331, 

337,  339,  341-363 
Empress    Amelie    of    Brazil,    345, 

347,  357,  361 
slave  trade   in   Brazil,   365,    366, 

368 
General  Rosas,  376,  377,  382 
river   fleets  of  Buenos  Aires  and 

Montevideo,  383 
the  Santaf^cinos,  384 
Gaspar  Rodriguez  de  Francia,  384 
Francisco  Solano  Lopez,  386,  387 
warfare  in  Paraguay,  387 
South  American  revolutions,  388, 

389 


Character — continued 

tropical  forests  of  South  America, 
396 

a   naturalist    in    South    America, 
397 

Charles  Waterton,  397-404 

the  Amazon  Valley,  408,  409 

Henry  Bates,  410,  411 

A.  R.  Wallace,  414 

Richard  Hakluyt,  424,  425 

early     British     South     American 
books,  427-434 

early  British  South  American  au- 
thors, 440 

Charles  Mansfield,  462-470 

Paraguay,  467-468 

British  enterprise  in  South  Amer- 
ica, 482 

the  Spanish  South  American,  495 

the  Irish   in   South  America,   503 

British  railroad  pioneers,  518-519 

British  progress  in  South  Amer- 
ica, 526 

the   Germans   in   South   America, 
530,  537,  541 

success  to-day  in  South  America, 
536 

necessary  for  a  commercial  trav- 
eler in  South  America,  538 

German    South    American    diplo- 
macy, 542 

British  diplomats  in  South  Amer- 
ica, 543 

United    States'    South    American 
trade  policy,  548 
Charles,  Colonel,  208 
Chile,  census  of   (1788),  103 

governed  by  Ambrose  O'Higgins, 
113 

Bernardo    O'Higgins    arrives    in, 
190 

Bernardo  O'Higgins  becomes  dic- 
tator of,  192 

Jose   Carrera  obtains  control   of, 
195 

British    command    navy    of,    203, 
204 

attracts  British  trade,  260 

"Journal     of     a     Residence     in," 
444 

nitrate  industry  in,  483 

direct     steamship     line     between 
England  and,  513 

first  South  American  railroad  in, 
520 
Chilton,  John,  35 
Churches,  British,  in  South  America, 

486-493 
Clipperton,  Captain,  97 


578 


INDEX 


Cochrane,   Admiral  Lord,    166,   197, 
268,  269,  302,  303 
Colombians  described  by,  169 
Chilean  navy  founded  by,  198 
Spanish  navy  conquered  by,  198 
breaks  with  San  Martin,  199 
popularity  of  Lady,  199,  207 
gives  banquet  to  Chileans,  206 
builds  up  Brazilian  navy,  303 
attacks  port  of  Bahia,  303,  305 
methods  employed  by,   304 
drives    Portuguese    from    Brazil, 

305 
suppresses    Brazilian    revolution, 

306 
made  Marquis  of  Maranhao,  308 
Emperor      Pedro     refuses     prize 

money  to,  309 
suppresses  revolution  at  Pernam- 

buco,  310 
sails     for     England     with     prize 

money,  310 
"Journal     of     a     Eesidence     and 
Travels  in  Colombia,"  by,  452 
Cockaram,  Martin,  of  Plymouth,  18 
Cockburn,  Alexander,  241 
"Cock  Mass,"  description  of  the,  453 
"Cockney"  Sam,  381 
CoflFee,  trade  with  Brazil,  516 
Coleman,   Nicholas,    102 
Colombians,  character  of,   169,   170, 
272,  452 
Irish  enlist  with,  170,  171 
rations  in  army  of,  171,  172 
climate  and  conditions  of,  172 
announcement  of  freedom  of,  186 
Alexander      Cockburn     appointed 
British  minister  to   (1826),  241 
mountain  crossing  methods  of,  263 
sacred  lake  of,  270 
typical  dinner  of  the,  272 
early  costume  of  the,  274 
fandango  dance  of  the,  452 
Columbus,  voyages  of,  4 
Condor,    adventure    of    a    Cornish 
miner  with  a,  261 
attacks  Richard  Spruce  and  com- 
panion, 418 
Convicts,  meet  missionaries  at  Mon- 
tevideo, 136 
Cook,  Captain,  134,  252,  282 
Comwallis,  voyage  of  H.M.S.,  138 
Cotton,  Edward,  59 
Courtney,  Captain  Stephen,  95 
Cricket,    introduced   at  Valparaiso, 
206 

D 

da  Gama,  Vasco,  4 


d' Almeida,  history  of  Joao,  105 

Dampier,  Captain,  4,  93 

d'Arset,  story  of  Anna,  8 

Darwin,  experiences  in  South  Amer- 
ica of  Charles,  404-408 
"Voyage  of  a  Naturalist"  by,  454 

Davie,  adventures  in  South  America, 
of  John,  436 

de    Berreo,    Antonio,    Spanish    gov- 
ernor of  Guinea,  75 

de  Castro,  Don  Beltran,  victory  of, 
43 

de  Courcy,  Admiral,  297 

de  Francia,  Caspar  Rodriguez,  384- 
386 

Delight,  voyage  of  the,  60 

de  Navares,  Heronima,  letter  of,  37 

de  Rute,  Juan,  17 

de  Souza,  Martin  Alonzo,  59 

Desire,  voyage  of  the,  63 

Devereux,  career  of  General,  176-178 

Dias,  Francisco,  202,  204 

Dinner,  a  typical  Colombian,  272 

Diplomat,     character     of     German 
South  American,  541 
necessary    characteristics    of    the 
British  South  American,  544 

Document,  South  American   (1797), 
164,  165 

Dona    Maria,    Queen    of    Portugal, 
346,  360  X 

Drake,  fate  of  John,  56,  57- 

Dream,  Drake's,  35 

Dutch,  English  join  with,  72 


E 


el  Dorado,  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  seeks, 

74 
Elizabeth,    Queen,    shows    favor    to 

Drake,  29,  36,  526 
renames  Hawkins'  ship,  42 
English,  Expedition  to  Venezuela  by 

General,  175 
character  of  Mrs.,  186 
Colombia's  freedom  announced  at 

home  of  Mrs.,  186 
language,  as  taught  to  Don  Pedro 

I,  339 
Englishmen,  regarded  as  pirates,  55 
circumnavigate  the  world,  29,  62 
in  service  of  Spain,  102 
aid  revolution  in  South  'America, 

142 
emigrate  to  Guiana,  157 
volunteer  in  Argentine  revolution, 

196 
get  pearl  fishing  rights,  274 
as  shopkeepers  in  "Brazil,  320 


INDEX 


579 


Englishmen — contirmed 

empressed     into     Buenos      Aires 
squadron,  383 
Esmeralda,   capture  of  frigate,   198 

Lautero's  fight  with,  204 
Esquemeling,  history  of  freebooting 
by,  85,  8(j 
"Bucaniers  of  America,"  by,  426 


F 


Fahy,  Father,  487 

Falkland,    founding    of    islands    of 
(1766),  161 
British  ejected  from,   161 
restored  by  Spain  to  England,  161 
description  of,  161 
Argentina  takes  possession  of,  162 
becomes  penal  settlement,  162 
present  prosperity  under   British 

of,  162 
naval  battle  of,  162 
Dr.  Samuel  Johnson  on,  433 
books  on,  480 
Fandango,  as  danced   in   Colombia, 

452 
Fenten,    disastrous    voyage    of    Ed- 
ward, 51 
fights  with  Spanish  fleet,  55 
Ferguson,  escape  of  Colonel,  226 
Fields,  Father  Thomas,  106 
Forest,  characteristics  of  the  South 

American,   396,   405-407 
French,  English  join  with,  72 
aid  Dom  Pedro  I  to  escape  from 

Brazil,  344^363 
aid  Queen  of  Portugal  to  escape 

from  Brazil,  358-360 
and     British     blockade      Buenos 

Aires,  378 
early  illustrations  of  South  Amer- 
ican Indians  by  the,  431 
Friendship,  English  and  Portuguese 
end,  47 
of  Bolivar  for  the  English,  227 
Frobisher,  Martin,  36 
Fructuoso,  Gaspar,  10 


G 


Galleon,  capture  by  Anson  of  Ma- 
nila, 130 
Game,  types  of  South  American,  270 
Garibaldi,    South    American    service 

of,  378,  379 
Gas,  Bogota  first  illuminated  by,  187 
Gauchos,    habits    of    the,    201,    252, 

406,  473,  474 
Gaunt,  John  of,  6 


Germans,    in    South    America,    328, 
530 
employed  as  troops  by  Brazilians, 

328 
revolt  against  their  officers,  333 
increase  trade  greatly  with  South 

America,  532 
compete    with    British    in    South 

America,  537,  541 
methods      and      organization      in 

South  America  of,  541,  542 
prosperity    of     South    American, 

545 
unpopular  to-day  in  Brazil,  546 
future  policy  in  South  America  of, 
547 
Goats,  abolishment  on  Juan  Fernan- 
dez of,  89 
on  island  of  Juan  Fernandez,  126 
Gondomar,  79 
Gongo   Soco,   mines   bought   by   the 

British,   326 
Gordon,  Geographical  Grammar  by, 

427-429 
Grenfell,  Admiral,  335-337 
Gringo,  origin  of  word,  253 
Grubb,  W.   Barbrooke,  the  "Living- 
stone of  South  America,"  491 
Guanaco,  hunt  of,  133 
Guatavita,  lake  of,  271 
Guayaquil,  capture  of,  230 
character  of  army  of,  247 
William     Brown     exchanged     for 
governor  of,  231 
Guiana,  explorations  of,  77,  398 
voyages  to,  156 

Raleigh's  description  of,  156,  398 
cultivates   sugar,   tobacco,    cattle, 

157 
British  immigrants  to,  157 
series  of  wars  in,  157 
revolt  of  negroes  in,  158 
emancipation    of    slaves    in,    158, 

159 
characteristics  of,  159,  160,  399 
books  about,  478-480 
Guinea,     ship     of     Edward     Cotton 
wrecked  on,  60 


Hadfield,   "Brazil,  the  River  Plate, 
etc.,"  by  William,  458 

Hakluyt,  Richard,  accoimt  of  Span- 
ish prizes  by,  45 
collection  of  South  American  voy- 
ages bv,  42.3-^25 

Hall,  Captain  Basil,  166,  448 


580 


INDEX 


Hall — continued 

friendship  with  San  Martin,  215, 

238 
bandits'  experience  with,  217 
adventure  with  Peneleo,  221,  222 
records   life    on    South    American 

Pacific  Coast,  239,  448 
account  of  a  Chilean  ball  by,  244 
Hamilton,    sole    right    to    navigate 
steam  vessels  on  Orinoco  given 
to  Colonel  James,  187 
Harcourt,  Robert,  77 
Hart-Dyke,  exploit  of  Admiral,  390- 

392 
Hastings,  Gilbert  of,  5 
Hawkins,  William,  4,  8,  11,   16,  17 
Sir  John,  14,  19,  37 
Sir  Richard,  son  of  John,  40,  42 
observations  of  Sir  Richard,  426 
Heath,  "Jolly,"  373 
Helps,  "Spanish  Conquest  of  Amer- 
ica," by  Sir  Arthur,  458 
Henry,  Prince,  the  Navigator,  6,  7 
Hispaniola,  Island  of,  21 
Hotels,      British     establish      South 
American,  258 
Rio  famous  for  British,  372,  373 
Huallaga,  river,  277 
Huantajaya,  story   of   lady  of,   210 
Himt,  R.  J.,  the  South  American  In- 
dian missionary,  491 


Illustrations,  in  early  British  geo- 
graphical works,  431 
Independence,  South  American  War 

of,  164 
British   leaders   in   War   of,    166, 

197 
British  seamen  in  War  of,  183 
Bernardo  O'Higgins  enlists  in  War 

of,  191 
Colonel  Mackenna  enlists  in  War 

of,  194 
Captain   Basil   Hall   records  first 

years  of  War  of,  238 
complications  vnth  United  States 

in  War  of,  239 
chief  benefit  from  the  War  of,  264 
Indians,   South   American,    13,   267, 

268,  270,  277,  278,  413,  414,  417, 

491 
prove  friendly  to  Drake,  32 
are   friendly    to    Captain    Wallis, 

133 
Araucanian,  219 
in  Chilean  service,  223 
war  exercises  of,  223 


Indians — continued 

New     Testament     translated     for 
Peruvian,  247 

sacred  lake  of,  270 

incident  of  Darwin  with  Fuegian, 
407 

Wallace  describes  customs  of  for- 
est, 414 

missionaries  to,  491 
Inquisition,  established  in  Lima,  19 

in  Lima,   102,  246 
Invalids,  taken  on  Anson  expedition, 

118 
Investments,  British,  in  South  Amer- 
ica to-day,  526 
Irish,  in  Spanish  America,  109,  110, 
487 

South  American  partnership  with, 
110 

enlist  for  Venezuelan  service,  170, 
171,  176 

capture  town  of  Rio  de  la  Hacha, 
179 

thanked  by  Bolivar  and  Colombian 
Congress,  180 

in  command  of  first  settlement  in 
Brazil,  281 

duped  into  immigration  to  Brazil, 
328-330 

Brazil's  treatment  of  the,  331 

mutiny  against  Brazilians,  332 

sent  back  from  Brazil  to  Ireland, 
334 

domestic  servants  come  to  South 
America,  485 

28,000  Irish  in  Argentine  Repub- 
lic   (1865),  485 

sheep    farmers    found    college    at 
Buenos  Aires,  487 

prosperity  in  river  Plate  district, 
487,  503 
Islands,  Porto  Santo,  4 

Madeira,  4 

of  Santa  Catherina,  120,  121 

Pitcairn's,  134 

Falkland,  161,  162 

of  Tocujos,  281 

of  Trinidad,  293 


Jesuits,  in  Brazil,  105,  106 
fight  with  bucaneers,  107 
Joao,  Prince  of  Portugal  and  King 
of  Brazil,  283-289,  295,  296 
opens   commercial   exchange   with 
Britain,  319 
Johnston,   Rock-salt  mines  granted 
to  Colonel,  187 


INDEX 


581 


Journey,  of  Lieutenant  Smyth  and 

F.  Lowe,  275-279 
Juan  Fernandez,  significance  of  is- 
land of,  88,  98 
Anson's  visit  to,  123,  125,  126 
American  ship  visits,  135 
first  hermit  of,  94 
Judith,  Drake's  first  ship,  24 


Keymis,  Captain,  77 

King  James  I,  grants  patent  to  Rob- 
ert Harcourt  for  all  country  be- 
tween Amazon  and  Essequibo, 
77 

Kingsley,  admiration  for  Charles 
Mansfield  of  Charles,  461 


Lancaster,  Blanche  of,  6 

James,  history  of,  69 
Las  Casas,  Bishop,  13 
Lautaro,  Chilean  frigate,  203 
Ledger,   llama   transported  to  Aus- 
tralia by,  508-510 
Leigh,  Captain,  77 
Liberation,  Northern  War  of,   170- 
187 
British   engaged   in   War   of,    170 
end  of  War  of,  187 
Benavides  in  War  of,  218 
Captain  Hall  records  War  of,  238 
conditions  after  War  of,  248 
occupations  of  British  after  War 
of,  257 
Lima,  inquisition  in,  19,  102,  246 
San  Martin  captures,  216-217 
bull  fighting  at,  236 
theater  in,  238 
ladies  of,  240 

Consul  Rowcroft  killed  in,  241 
stage  coach  established  in,  242 
ball  in  honor  of  Bolivar  in,  245 
Englishman  superintends  mint  of, 
249 
Liman,  Richard,  102 
Limon,  Richarte,   17 
Lisbon,  capture  of  city  of,  4 
Llama,    transported    first    to    Aus- 
tralia  (1858),  508-510 
Lopez,  Carlos  Antonio,  orders  Brit- 
ish to  build  railroads  in  Para- 
guay, 521 
Francisco  Solano,  386-388,  469 
permits    British    to    enter    Para- 
guay, 465 


Lopez — contimt  ed 

renews  work  on  railroads  (1886), 

522 
Lowe,  South  America  crossed  by  F., 

275 
Lynch,  Madame  Eloisa,  387 


M 


Machico,  to\vn  of,  10 
Machin,  story  of  Robert,  8 
Mackenna,  Colonel  John,   193-196 
McGregor,  Sir  Gregor,  170 
Madeira,  discovery  of,  10 
Anson's  fleet  stops  at,  120 
Wallis'  fleet  stops  at,  133 
twice  occupied  and  twice  restored 
by  British,  530 
Manby,   Bogota  illiuninated  by  gas 

by  Colonel,  187 
Mansfield,  career  of  Charles  B.,  461- 
471 
character  of,  462,  550 
Marriage,  of  Philippa  to  King  John 
of  Portugal,  6 
of  Mary  of  England  to  Phillip  II 
of  Spain,  103 
Martilini,  Captain  Roberton's  blood- 
feud  with,  224 
taken  prisoner  to  France,  225 
Martinez,  Juan  Apostol,  202 
Maw,    Lieutenant    H.    Lister,    first 
Englishman    to    descend    Ama- 
zon, 454 
Mendoza,  Pedro  de,  12,  17 

life  in,  202 
Miller,  General,   166 

William,  202-213,  368 
Mines,     Colonel     Johnston    granted 
rock-salt,   187 
English     speculate    in    PeruWan, 

249,  251 
South    America   invaded   by   men 

from  Cornish,  261,  262 
Imperial   Brazilian   Mining   Asso- 
ciation of  London  buys,  326 
British,  in  South   America,  482 
Miranda,  General,  the  South  Amer- 
ican patriot,  142 
places  South  American  Document 

before  British  Cabinet,  165 
son  of,  274 
Missionaries,  meet  convicts,  136,  435 
found  Lancasterian  schools,  247 
translate  New  Testament  for  In- 
dians, 247 
fail  to  convert  Fuegians,  407 
in  South  America,  489-493 


582 


INDEX 


Missionaries — continued 

first  missionary  society  in  South 
America  established  ( 1814)-,  490 
Monkey,  characteristics  of  the  howl- 
ing, 409 
Montevideo,    convicts    and    mission- 
aries meet  at,  136 
British  besiege,  149 
Spanish  fleet  sunk  oflf,  229 
Gauchos  besiege,  252 
blockaded     by     Admiral     Brown 

(1843),  378 
besieged  by  Argentina,  381,  385 
cholera  sweeps,  390 
description  of  ladies  of,  438 
British  population  of,  488 
paved  with  British  flag-stones,  488 
Monuments,     British     honored     by 

South  Americans  with,  213 
Morality,  of  John  Hawkins,  21 

of  Bolivar,  186 
Morgan,  Sir  Henry,  82,  94 
Morphi,    Don    Carlos,    governor    of 

Paraguay    (1766),  109 
Murray,  Reverend  J.  H.,  visits  Uru- 
guay and  Argentina,  488,  489 
Musicians,  on  the  Pelican,  31 

loaned  by  Captain  Rogers  to  the 
Portuguese,  96 
Mutiny,  on  voyage  of  Captain  Am- 
brose, 122 


N 


Narbrough,  Admiral  Sir  John,  427 
Naturalist,    the    British,    in    South 
America,  395^19 

"Voyage    of    a    Naturalist,"    by 
Charles  Darwin,  454 

"A  Naturalist  on  the  River  Ama- 
zon," by  Bates,  458 
Navigators,  Iberian,  Portuguese,  4 

Prince  Henry  the  Navigator,  6 

English,   14 

obtained    first    records    of    South 
America,  423 
Navy,  founding  of  Chilean,  198 

Pacific  Ocean  cleared  of  Spanish, 
198,  207 

British  officers  command  Chilean, 
203-205 

deeds  of  Chilean,  207 

founding  of  Argentine,  229 

Admiral  Brown  commands  Argen- 
tine, 247 

Admiral  Cochrane  builds  up  Bra- 
zilian, 303 

type  of  sailor  in  Brazilian,  303 

character  of  Argentine,  376 


Negroes,    introduction    into    South 
America,  13,  20 

imported  to  Buenos  Aires,  108 

revolt  in  Guiana,  158 

great  size  of  Bahia,  286 

use  warming  pans  as  sugar  skim- 
mers, 292 

story  of  the  "diamond"  and  the, 
324 

Brazilian  army  largely  composed 
of,  328 

of  Rio  attack  Irish,  330-333 

well  treated  in  Brazil  as  slaves, 
366 

purchase  freedom  from  Brazil  and 
return  to  Africa,  369 
New  Testament,  translated  for  Peru- 
vian Indians,  247 
Nitrates,    Britisli    South    American 
industry  in,  483 


O 


Ogilby,  "History  of  South  America" 

by  John,  426 
O'Higgins,  Ambrose,  career  of,  110- 

114,  190 
Bernardo,  career  of,  114,  115,  189- 

193 
O'Leary,  career  of  Colonel,  227 
Orinoco,    Sir    Walter    Raleigh    sails 

up,  74,  75 
Osomo,   Colonel  Mackenna  becomes 

governor  of,  193 
Oxenham,  story  of  John,  27 
Oysters,  British  get  exclusive  rights 

to  fish  for  pearl,  274 


Padilla,  succeeds  Admiral  Brion,  184 
Paez,  guerilla  leader,  168,  173 

wins  battle  of  Carabobo  with  aid 
of  British  and  Irish,  180 
Panama,  the  "golden  road"  of,  86 
sack  of,  94 

failure  of  British  at,  129 
astronomical    observations    taken 

at,  252 
British  consulate  at,  269 
Paraguay,  English  settle  at,  103 
description  of  a  ball  in,  469 
exclusion  of  foreigners  from,   104 
missionary  work  in,  490 
Father  Fields  in,  107 
Don  Carlos  Morphi,  governor  of, 

109 
Great  Britain  makes  treaty  with 
(1845),  280 


INDEX 


583 


Paraguay — continued 

founding  of  despotic  rule  in,  385 
visited  by  Charles  Mansfield,  461- 

471 
Australian  colony  in,  506 
introduces  railroads  (1854),  521 
Payta,  capture  by  Anson,  128 
Pedro  I,  Emperor  of  Brazil,  313,  328, 
331,  337 
abdication  and  flight  of,  340-363 
Pedro    II,    the    Emperor,    visits    a 
United  States  steamer,  299 
first  and  only  white  monarch  born 

on  American  soil,  348 
acclaimed  as  Emperor  by  Rio  de 
Janeiro,  353 
Pelican,  Drake's  ship,  30 

name  changed  to  Golden  Hind,  33 
Peneleo,    Captain    Hall's    adventure 

with,   221 
Penguin,      Island;      ship      Delight 
touches  at,  60 
men  from  ship  Desire  kill  14,000 
penguins,  66,  68 
Perestrello,  Bartholomeu,  4 
Pernambuco,  Lancaster  seeks,  70 
Admiral  Cochrane  suppresses  rev- 
olution at,  310 
Pert,  Sir  Thomas,  16 
Peru,   Bernardo  O'Higgins,   Viceroy 
of,  114,  115,  189 
William  Miller  commands  cavalry 

of,  209 
San  Martin's  policy  in,  215 
New  Testament  translated  for  In- 
dians of,  247 
English  speculate  in  mines  of,  249, 

251 
aids    British    to   cross   continent, 

276 
acknowledges  value  of  British  sur- 
veys, 279 
origin  of   "The  Present  State  of 

Peru"    (1805),  434 
"Conquest    of    Peru,"    by    W.    H. 
Prescott,  457 
Philip,  of  Spain,  29 
Pig,  Sir  Francis  Head's  storv  of  the, 

442 
Pitcairn's  Island,  discovery  of,  134 
Placentia,  Island  of,  67 
Plate,  River,  57,  58,  236 

British    expedition    to,    141,    144, 

152 
William  Brown's  ship  \vreckcd  at 

mouth  of,  229 
naval  actions  in,  382 
Robertson     expedition     to     river, 
385 


Plate — continued 

"States  of  River  Plate,"  by  Wil- 
,  fred  Latham,  473 
condition  of  Irish  in,  487 
Pope,  Alexander  VI   delimits  globe 
between     Spanish     and     Portu- 
guese, 19 
Popham,  Sir  Home,  143-149 
Porter,  Sir  R.  Ker,  241 
Portuguese,  end  of  friendship  with 
English,  47 
Lancaster  refuses  to  treat  with,  73 
cordiality  to"  English,  95 
armed  collisions  with  English  in 

Brazil,  281,^282 
Court  moves  to  Brazil,  285 
abandon  port  of  Bahia  to  Brazil- 
ians, 3()5 
control  ends  in  Brazil,  305 
beggars  in  Brazil,  317 
have  a  king    (Dom  Pedro  I)    for 
six  days,  338 
Prescott,  "Conquest  of  Peru,"  by  W. 

H.,  457 
Preston,  Captain  Amyas,  77 
Priests,  hostile  to  British  in  South 
America,   183 
character   of   some  South   Ameri- 
can, 263,  413 
Prisoners,  Spanish  and  English  ex- 
change, 140 
fate  of   British,  in   South  Amer- 
ica, 154 
Puerto  Cabello,  capture  of,  186 

Q 

Quakers,  begin  anti -slave  trade  cam- 
paign in  Brazil   (1852),  369 

R 

Race-Course,     Pacific     Coast's     first 

regular,  206 
Raids,  by  English  on  Spanish  com- 
merce, 44 
Railroads,  British  prestige  in  South 
America  due  to  their,  517 
difficulties      of      building      Soutli 

American,   519 
William   Wheelwright   founder   of 

South   American,  520 
Chile   gets   first   of   South    Amer- 
ican,  520 
introduced  into  Paraguay  (1854), 
521 
Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  4,  74,  78,  79 
description  of  Brazil  by,  76 
description    of    Guiana    by,    156, 
426,  427 


584 


INDEX 


Kaleigh — continued 

description  of  South  American  In- 
dian by,  431 
Rancagua,  battle  of,  195 
Recife,  capture  of,  71 
Rennie,  practical  jokes  of  Mr.,  269 
Revolution,     beginnings     of     South 
American,  142 
British    assist    South    American, 

152,  196 
Irish  assist  South  American,  170, 

171 
battle  of  Carabobo,  180 
conditions  following,  238 
chief  benefit  of  the,  264 
character   of   a    South    American, 
388-390 
Ringrose,  Basil,  90,  92 
Rio    de    Janeiro,    Captain    Rogers's 
expedition  to,  95 
Portuguese  Court  arrives  at,  288 
British  church  built  at,  290 
British  mercantile  community  at, 

291,  321 
opera  or  ballet  in,  298 
blockaded  by  British  fleet,  301 
commercial    exchange    opened    in 

(lo20),  319 
English  pot-houses  at,  322 
table  mutton  introduced  at,  322 
Irish   immigrants  arrive  at,  329, 

330 
German    and    Irish    uprising    in, 

333 
acclaims     little     emperor,     Dom 

Pedro  II,  353 
rioting  in,  357 
slave  market  glutted,   367 
British  hotels  famous  in,  372 
direct  steamship  line  from  South- 
ampton to,  516 
British  post  office  in,  517 
Rio  de  la  Hacha,  storming  of,  25 

capture  by  Irish  Legion  of,  179 
Riquelme,    Isabel,    mother    of    Ber- 
nardo O'Higgins,  189 
Roberton,    career    of    Captain,    224, 

225 
Robertson,      Dr.      William,     writes 
standard  work  on  South  Amer- 
ica, 434 
Rodil,    Spanish    general,    237,    241, 

242 
Rogers,  Captain  Woodes,  95,  96 
Rosas,  General,  376,  382 
Royal  Mail,  Steam  Packet  Company 

extends  service  to  Brazil,  515 
Rush,  exploit  of  Captain,  180 
Rutter,  John,  102 


S 


St.  Lawrence,  British  despoil  tomb 

of,  182 
San  Juan  de  Ulloa,  fight  at,  25 
San  Julian,  execution  at,  32 
San  Martin,  career  of,  167,  199,  215- 

217,  257 
Santa  Catherina,  island  of,  121 
Santaf6cino8,  character  of  the,  384 
Santiago,    Chilean    capital    of,    205, 
242 
receives  William  Miller,  205 
Benavides  hanged  in,  223 
Santos,  Portuguese-English  troubles 
at,  47,  53 
captured    by    Cavendish     (1591), 
63 
Sao  Vicente,  burning  by  Cavendish 

of,  64 
Schools,   South  America  introduced 
to  Lancasterian,  247 
public  examination  in  schools  at 
Bogota,  273 
Scotch,    colony    in    South    America, 

498 
Selkirk,     Alexander,     abandonment 

and  rescue  of,  94,  97 
Sheep,  British  South  Americans  be- 
gin to  raise,  498,  499 
Slave  Trade,  founder  of  negro,  7 
beginnings  of,  21 
in  eighteenth  century,   108 
extended    to   all    South    America, 

108 
abolished  in  Guiana,  158 
introduced  by  British  into  Brazil, 

365 
conditions  of  Brazilian,  366 
Sloth,     picturesque     description     of 

the,  430,  456 
Smith,  Sir  W.  Svdney,  284,  287,  289, 

293,   295-297 
Smuggling,   by  English  vessels,   108 
Smyth,  journey  across.  South  Amer- 
ica by  Lieutenant,  275 
Snake,  capture  of  the  great  Coula- 

canara,  400-402 
Sobremonte,      Viceroy     of      Buenos 
Aires  surrenders  to  British,  145 
Society,    Bogota    center    of    Anglo- 
South  American,  186 
character  of  South  American,  250 
South   America,  colonial   period  in, 
101 
criminals  in,  109 
greatest  British  subject  in,   114 
beginnings   of   revolution  in,    142 
fate  of  British  prisoners  in,  153 


INDEX 


585 


South   America — continued 
asks  British  military  aid,  165 
Admiral       Cochrane       commands 

navy  of,  166 
conditions  of  soldiering  in,  172 
erects  monuments  to  British,  213 
popularity    of     Captain    Thomas 

Brown  in,  236 
receives  British  consuls,  240 
diplomatically   equipped,   241 
courtesy  and  hospitality  in,  243 
Lancasterian    schools    established 

in,  247 
mining  boom  in,  250 
British  survey  coast  of,  251,  275 
character  of  society  in,  256 
British  occupations  in,  257 
Cornish  miners  come  to,  261 
British  trade  methods  with,  264, 

527 
table  habits  in,  266 
shooting  game  in,  270 
sport  in,  271,  511 
Lieutenant    Smyth   and    F.    Lowe 

cross,  275 
position  of  foreigner  in,  374 
grimmest   chapter    in   history   of, 

388 
policy  of  revolutions  in,  388,  389, 

390 
British  naturalists  in,  395-419 
nature     of     tropical     forests     in, 

396 
visited  by   Charles  Darwin,  404- 

408 
in  English  print,  421-480 
John  Ogilby's  history  of,  426 
early   British   ignorance  of,   427- 

434 
as    illustrated    in    early    British 

books,  431 
"Letters  on,"  by  J.  P.  and  W.  P. 

Robertson,  445 
"Wanderings      in,"     by     Charles 

Waterton,  454 
British  financing  of,  482,  525 
nitrate  industry  in,  483 
British  banking  system  in,  484 
church  and  missionaries  in,  486- 

493 
Scotch  colony  in,  498 
sheep  raising  and  cattle  industry 

in,  498-500 
meat-shipping  industry  in,  500 
Welsh  colony  in,  506 
influence  of  British  sport  on,  511 
British      shipping     and      railway 

achievements  in,  512-524 
first  cable  laid  to   (1874),  523 


South  America — continAied 

British     financial     assistance    to, 

525,  526 
nature  of  British  progress  in,  526 
Germans  in,  530 
British  good  faith  in,  530,  531 
British  trade  falls  off  with,  531, 

533 
British  diplomats  in,  543 
present  German  unpopularity  in, 

546 
future  German  policy  in,  547 
United  States  trade  policy  toward, 

548 
future  relations  of  British  with, 

549-551 
Spain,  raiding  of  commerce  to,  44 
openly  at  war  with  England,  62 
policy  toward  bucaneers,  81 
South    American    policy    of,    102, 

135,   169 
Admiral  Cochrane  conquers  navy 

of,  198 
last  stronghold  in  South  America 

(Lima)    captured,  217 
treatment  of  British  prisoners  by, 

226 
William  Brown  destroys  fleet  of, 

229 
General  Rodil,  last  hope  of,  237, 

242 
policy  of  Brazil  influenced  by,  281 
Spaniards,  enmity  against  English, 

25,  37,  422,  423 
attack  Andrew  Barker  expedition, 

39 
courtesy  to  Sir  Richard  Hawkins, 

44 
courage  against  bucaneers,  86 
methods  in  South  American  War 

of   Independence,    169 
deprived    of    property   and   social 

position,  246 
Spruce,   Richard,   botanist,   avplorea 

South  America,  415-419 
Straits,  of  Magellan,  33,  64,  133 
Sugar    Loaf,   Moimtain,   ascents   of, 

372 
Summers,  Captain  George,  77 
Sumpter,  American  Minister,  resents 

Brazilian   regulations,    315 
Superstition,  of  the  English,  41 
of  tlie  Indians,  271 
of  the  Irish,  332 
Surrender,  of  British  to  the  Argen- 
tines, 150 


Tagus  river,  4,  6,  7 


586 


INDEX 


Talmayancu,     Araucanian     Indian, 
202 

Teola,  German  regiment  kills  their 
Brazilian  major,  332 

Theater,  in  Lima,  238 
in  Rio  de  Janeiro,  298 

Tierra   del    Fuego,   visited   by  Cap- 
tain Cook,  135 

Tinian,   island  of,   130 

Tison,  Thomas,  17 

Tocujos,    British    settlement   on    is- 
land of,  281 
fight  between  British  and  Portu- 
guese at,  282 

Tortuga,  island  of,  84 

Tramways,  British  South  American 
system  of,  523 

Treasure,    British    find    Barcelona, 
182 

Treaty,  of  Windsor  (1386),  6 

Trinidad,   British   locate    island   of, 
293 

Tristao,  NuQo,  4 


U 


Ucayli,   British  first  navigators   of 

river,  278 
United     States,     South     American 

trade  policy  of,  548 
Uruguay,  British  in,  488 

first  railroad  in    (1868),  523 
Uruguayana,  the,  38^ 
Ushant,  6 
Utrecht,  treaty  of,  108 


V 


Valparaiso,  Colonel  Mackenna  made 

governor  of,   194 
Lord  Cochrane  arrives  at,  205 
first  regular  race-course  in  South 

America  at,   206 
cricket  and  life  in,  206,  207 
prominent   British   merchants  in, 

237 
account  of  a  ball  at,  244 
British    population    in    1823    of, 

247 
Venezuela,    climate    and    conditions 

in,  172 
General  English's  force  in,  175 
General  Devereux's  force   in,   177 
Sir     R.     Ker     Porter     appointed 

Charge    d'Affaires    to     (1835), 

241 
Cornishmen    employed    in    mines 

of,  262 
first  railroad   (1873)   in,  523 


Venner,  Captain,  71 
Voyages,  Columbus,  4 

English,  4 

first  equatorial,  8 

William  Hawkins,  17 

Robert  Reniger,   19 

Thomas  Borey,  19 

Thomas  Pudsey,  19 

Sir  John  Hawkins,   19,  22,  23 

Sir  Francis  Drake,  23,  26,  36 

around     the     world     by     Drake 
(1577),  29 

Oolden  Hind,  35 

last  expedition  of  Drake    (1595), 
37 

Andrew   Barker,  38 

Richard  Hawkins,  40 

Edward   Fenton,   51 

Robert  Withrington,  58 

Delight,  60 

Thomas  Cavendish,  61,  63 

James  Lancaster,  70 

Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  74,  78 

Captain  Woodes  Rogers,  95 

Captain  Clipperton,  97 

Commodore    George   Anson,    117- 
131 

Commodore  Bvron,  131-132 

Captain  Wallis,  132-34 

Captain  Cook,  134 

H.  M.  S.  CornwaUis,  138 

Sir  Home  Popham,  143 

General  English,   175 

Colonel  John  Mackenna,  193 

Captain  Thomas  Brown,  236 

H.  M.  S.  Cambridge,  240-243 

Captain  Henry  Foster,  250-252 

Agamemnon,  293 

Dom  Joao  VI,  317 

J.   P.   Robertson   to   River  Plate, 
385 

Charles  Darwin  to   South   Amer- 
ica, 404-408 

Admiral  Sir  John  Narbrough,  426 

"Captain  R.  Boyle,"  432 


W 


Wallace,  A.  R.,  explores  Amazon  re- 
gion, 408,  412-415,  458 

Wallis,  Captain,  132 

Warspite,  British  ship,  acts  as  ref- 
uge for  Dom  Pedro  I  of  Brazil, 
344-363 

Waterton,  career  of  Charles,  397- 
404,  454 

Welsh,  colony  in  South  America, 
506 


INDEX  587 

Wheelwright,     William,     introduces      Wilson,  career  of  Colonel  Bedford, 
steam     navigation     to     Pacific  227 

(1840),  513  W.,  minister  to  Bolivia,  241 

career  of,  519-521  Withen,  feat  of  Major,  186 

Whitall,     John,     makes     profitable      Withrington,  Robert,  58 
Portuguese  marriage,  48 
starts  British  trade  with  Brazil, 

50  Z 

end  of,  59 
Whitelocke,  Lieutenant-General,  sur-      Zarco,  Joan  Gongalves,  4,  10 
renders  to  the  Argentines,  150 


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